As we wait for updates on the explosion at Aeon shopping centre in Kumamoto, earlier the chief government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said a gas smell was detected inside the building during yesterday’s search by firefighters and police, local media have reported.
Kihara stressed that the cause of the explosion, which happened about an hour after the earthquake struck, is still under investigation.
Toyoto and Honda said they will suspend operations in their factories in Kumamoto in southern Japan until Friday.
“The situation, including aftershocks and recovery efforts, is changing daily,” Toyota said in a statement. “We will continue to prioritise safety above all else.”
Honda Motor said the suspension would allow repairs to quake-damaged parts of the factory.
Some images from Japan as search efforts continue after yesterday’s earthquake:
Rescuers search for survivors in Japan after earthquake kills 13 people
Emergency workers are continuing their search for survivors in southern Japan after yesterday’s powerful earthquake left widespread devastation, with buildings collapsed, roads severely damaged and emergency teams digging through rubble.
At least 13 people have been killed and many reported missing after the earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu with a magnitude of 7.1, according to the Japan meteorological agency. The US Geological Survey measured it at magnitude 6.8.
The Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said rescue workers faced a “race against time” to reach more people still trapped in rubble. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can,” she said.
Eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed Aeon shopping centre near the city of Kumamoto following an apparent explosion that occurred around an hour after the earthquake, according to reports. Aeon said four workers at the shopping centre remained unaccounted for.
“I thought a bomb had gone off,” Takateru Sonoda, 41, who runs a hair salon and cafe near the shopping centre, told the Japanese Jiji Press news agency.
“There were people calling on others to evacuate and sirens were ringing out. Nearby roads were gridlocked, it was a state of panic.”
Seven people are also still missing at the Nippon Paper Industries factory where a chimney collapsed on to the site. Japan’s Mainichi newspaper reported that four people were rescued from the rubble at the paper mill, including two who were seriously injured.
Nearly 37,000 homes were still without electricity, 9,500 homes were without gas and communication networks were not working in some areas, chief government spokesperson Minoru Kihara told reporters. More than 9,000 people left their homes to stay in more than 500 shelters, Kihara added.
Read our overnight report here:
Updated
