A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck Japan\u2019s southern Kumamoto prefecture, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and causing a blast at a shopping mall where police say several people are presumed to have been killed and others remain trapped, as authorities warned of a risk of strong aftershocks.<\/p>\n
One hospital reported more than 50 injuries after the earthquake on Tuesday afternoon, public broadcaster NHK said, and several more people were hurt when the tremors derailed a high-speed train.<\/p>\n
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A tsunami warning was initially issued but later lifted, and Japan\u2019s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already been informed that people have been injured. Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings,\u201d Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 300,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, the disaster management agency said, while Takaichi said 3,600 soldiers would be deployed to help with the disaster recovery \u2060as aftershocks continued to rumble.<\/p>\n
Shinkansen bullet trains and local trains in Kyushu have been suspended for safety checks, while the runway at the Aso Kumamoto Airport was closed, with \u201cno prospect of resuming operations\u201d according to a notice on the airport\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
The worst incident appeared to be the explosion at an Aeon Mall in Kumamoto.<\/p>\n
Kazuya Tsurunaga told broadcaster TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres (980 feet) from the mall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge impact,\u201d he said. \u201cA large cloud of smoke billowed up, and because the wind happened to be blowing and the wind direction was towards the shop, the area around us was in a state like volcanic ash was falling.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Aeon spokesperson said customers and employees were evacuated right after the initial quake and the cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear.<\/p>\n
Japan is one of the world\u2019s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located along the \u201cRing of Fire\u201d of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world\u2019s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged those in the quake-hit areas \u201cto remain vigilant for the possibility of another earthquake of similar magnitude\u201d, adding that the government was working to assess the extent of damage \u201cas quickly as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Japan Times reported that cities in Kumamoto, as well as the neighbouring prefectures of Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga and Miyazaki, all felt strong shaking.<\/p>\n
The earthquake\u2019s epicentre was located in the city of Uki, just south of the city of Kumamoto, at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).<\/p>\n
Companies, including Sony and TSMC, the world\u2019s largest contract chipmaker, have plants in the quake\u2019s path. There was no immediate clarity on whether any infrastructure was damaged. Sony and Fujifilm also evacuated staff from their plants in the area, the Nikkei newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
Leading energy supplier Kyushu Electric Power said about 40,000 homes had lost electricity as a result of the earthquake, while railway company JR Kyushu said it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains.<\/p>\n
Two large earthquakes in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured 2,739, according to an official count. Some portions of the stone walls at the already-under-repair Kumamoto Castle also collapsed as a result of Tuesday\u2019s quake, an official at the castle\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck Japan\u2019s southern Kumamoto prefecture, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[10852,24178,18,440,19,17,386,5,133,64925],"class_list":["post-608178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-asia-pacific","tag-earthquakes","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-science","tag-tsunami"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116997591325734128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}