A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-west Japan late on Tuesday, injuring at least 100 people and leaving many trapped after an explosion in an Aeon shopping mall in Kumamoto prefecture, authorities said. The quake hit Kumamoto on the southern Kyushu island at about 4.27pm local time, cutting power to thousands of homes and damaging roads, bridges and buildings. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the tremor reached level 7 on Japan’s shindo scale. The US Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7.1 before revising it to 6.8. Power Cuts And Building DamageKumamoto prefecture and surrounding areas experienced power outages affecting thousands of homes, with Kyushu Electric Power saying 48,000 households lost electricity. Japan’s rail operator JR Kyushu suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also shut its runway as airlines diverted and cancelled flights. Telecoms companies KDDI and NTT Docomo reported disruption to mobile phone services, attributed to power shortages and transmission-line failures. The nuclear regulation authority said there were no irregularities at nuclear power stations in the area. Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, told reporters that officials were assessing the damage and said fires and power outages had been reported in some areas. She urged residents to evacuate to safe locations. The disaster management agency said around 300,000 people had been told to go to evacuation centres. The quake’s shallow depth means the hardest-hit areas are expected to remain at risk of further strong tremors and landslides for about a week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It reported more than 60 aftershocks with magnitudes ranging from 1 to 4. Mall Explosion Leaves Missing PeopleOne person was killed when a house collapsed, Kyodo News reported. Several hospitals reported multiple casualties: NHK said two hospitals had received more than 50 injuries each, including 10 in a serious condition. NHK quoted a hospital employee saying staff were treating people with burns and fractures who had been trapped under objects. The broadcaster also reported water leaks and electrical system failures inside the facility. Local media reported that several people on a high-speed train were injured during the shaking. A chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory also left some people missing, the reports said. Rescue efforts focused on an Aeon mall after an explosion occurred shortly after the earthquake. Fire services said “many people” were trapped, and TBS reported police believed “quite a few” people were dead. As night fell, NHK reported that officials believed 10 people were still unaccounted for in the mall. Earlier, police said between 20 and 30 employees could not be contacted. An Aeon spokesperson said customers and employees were evacuated after the initial quake and that the cause of the explosion was unclear. A government official later told reporters that Aeon Kumamoto had reported a gas leak, though it had not been confirmed as the cause. Footage from the area showed one side of the mall, the prefecture’s largest with roughly 200 shops, torn away, exposing steel beams and leaving debris in a neighbouring car park. Several ambulances and fire engines were parked outside as rescue teams searched for survivors. Transport, Factories And Rescue OperationsRegional broadcasters showed other buildings burning or partly collapsed, along with large fissures on major roads including an elevated highway. TSMC, Sony and Fujifilm evacuated workers from factories in the area. Chiharu Hara, a 35-year-old recruitment agent in Kumamoto, told AFP she was “terrified” as the office swayed. “Everyone panicked,” she said. Japan’s military has mobilised 3,600 personnel for disaster relief and sent 20 aircraft to assess damage, the defence minister said. The quake comes about a decade after a major earthquake in Kumamoto in which 275 people died and 2,739 were injured. That disaster damaged thousands of buildings, including Kumamoto Castle. Japan sits on the Pacific “ring of fire” and experiences frequent earthquakes, accounting for about 20% of the world’s magnitude 6 or stronger events. It is also marked by the memory of the 2011 9.0-magnitude undersea quake that triggered a tsunami and led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Join the discussion? 29 July 2026
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