A shopping centre has collapsed with multiple people confirmed dead, after a strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan on Tuesday.
Japanese police previously said they had received reports of what sounded like an explosion at the mall, with ‘quite a few’ people presumed dead, broadcaster TBS reported.
Broadcaster NHK said that ‘many people’ were trapped inside the Aeon Mall outlet in Kumamoto, which was severely damaged as a result of the quake.
The tremor measured at the highest possible level seven on Japan’s own Shindo scale of shaking.
The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures,
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