Destructive earthquake strikes Japan, causes widespread damage

A major earthquake struck southern Japan on Tuesday at about 4:30 local time, causing widespread damage and outages in the country’s Kumamoto Prefecture. A tsunami advisory was issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency, but has since been dropped.

The magnitude 6.8 quake, originally given a 7.1 magnitude rating, has resulted in at least 50 injuries, according to Japanese news outlets.

The initial tremor caused widespread damage to homes and infrastructure, including roads and railways. Shortly after, a shopping mall in Kashima Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, exploded, collapsing the mall’s second floor. According to local police, about 20 to 30 people are feared to be trapped inside the building.

Additionally, several people had to be rescued from collapsed homes throughout the prefecture.

As rescue efforts and damage assessments continue, many major roads and rail lines have been shut down, as well as Kumamoto Airport.

About 48,000 customers were without power on Tuesday evening, local time, due to the quake, which also knocked out communications for some of the harder-hit areas.

Despite the widespread damage to infrastructure, the nuclear power plants in nearby Kagoshima, Genkai, and Ehime Prefectures are experiencing no abnormalities and are operating as normal.

Officials have warned that powerful aftershocks may continue over the next couple of days, which could cause further damage to buildings and the surrounding landscape.

The last time a major earthquake struck this part of Japan was in 2016, when two quakes struck Kumamoto Prefecture and resulted in 278 fatalities and damaged over 207,000 homes.

With files from NHK World - Japan and The Japan News.