Symbolic imageKumamoto quake death toll rises to 35 as search of collapsed mall goes on
Three days after a strong earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture in south-western Japan on Tuesday, the confirmed death toll has risen to 35. Rescuers are still working through a partly collapsed shopping centre and a paper mill in temperatures of up to 35C. About 15,000 people are in shelters and around 23,000 homes remain without electricity, with 75,000 without running water.
What happened
The quake struck Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu on Tuesday, 28 July, and registered the maximum level 7 on Japan's seven-level shindo scale; FAZ gives the magnitude as 7.1, the Guardian as 6.8. The prefectural government counted at least 62 injured. At the Aeon shopping centre in Kashima, the company says about 3,000 customers were evacuated to a car park before a gas explosion tore through another part of the building; of 12 people pulled from the rubble, six died, and all those caught in the blast were shop workers who had gone back inside. At the Nippon Paper mill in Yatsushiro a chimney collapsed, killing eight of the 11 workers trapped there, with one still missing. The Vietnamese government reported the first death of a foreign national, a technical intern killed when a crane fell on him at his workplace. Almost 5,000 Self-Defence Forces personnel are deployed, working through heat of up to 35C and an overnight aftershock of magnitude 5.8.
The view from outside
Chinese state media carried the rise to 35 dead on Friday as a straight news item, without political framing. Vietnam's government confirmed the death of its citizen, the only foreign fatality reported so far.
What could happen next
The toll has climbed steadily: 30 on Thursday by the Guardian's count, 34 the same day according to the New York Times, 35 on Friday. Officials put about 15,000 people in 400 shelters, with nearly 23,000 homes without electricity and 75,000 without running water; the defence ministry is airlifting coolers and shipping in water and food. Aeon's president bowed in apology on Wednesday and said the company had not anticipated the explosion, whose cause is still being investigated. Toyota has paused three plants and Honda a motorcycle plant, and the Geospatial Information Authority says parts of the ground shifted by 87cm, damage that includes the base-isolation system of Yatsushiro town hall, rebuilt after the 2016 quake.