At least thirty people have died from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook southwestern Japan on Tuesday, according to the latest casualty report revealed this Thursday by the archipelago’s Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi. “It has been confirmed that 30 people died from the earthquake,” said the leader to the media, without specifying whether rescue teams are still searching for those trapped under the rubble of several buildings.
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The government’s main spokesperson, Minoru Kihara, stated at a press conference hours earlier that “the police, firefighters, and the Self-Defense Forces (army) will continue making desperate efforts in the rescue operations” in efforts that have become “increasingly” “a race against time.”
Likewise, Kihara confirmed that five deaths were recorded in the shopping center where an explosion occurred more than an hour after the earthquake, as well as in the Nippon Paper Industries paper factory, where the earthquake toppled a large chimney.
In the rescue operations at the Kashima shopping center, there are 370 firefighters, 190 police officers, and 170 army personnel, while at the Yatsushiro factory there are 280 firefighters, 70 police officers, and 30 military personnel.
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The earthquake was recorded at 16:27 local time (09:27 in mainland Spain) on Tuesday, and its epicenter was located about 10 kilometers deep under Kumamoto Prefecture, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA), which issued a brief tsunami warning.
The tremor reached the maximum on the Japanese scale of 7 levels, focused on measuring surface shaking and the destructive potential of tremors, causing significant material damage, including the collapse of part of the wall of the popular Kumamoto Castle.
Since then, hundreds of aftershocks have been recorded, including a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on Wednesday night, and authorities have warned of the possibility of a larger tremor occurring in the coming days.
