Japan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 34 as Survivors Endure Scorching Heat

Japan quake death toll rises to 34 as rescuers race against heat

Japanese emergency crews continued searching for survivors at the wreckage of a shopping mall on Thursday after the death toll from a powerful earthquake climbed to 34, while tens of thousands of residents remained without electricity in sweltering summer conditions.

The Kumamoto disaster management office said seven more bodies had been recovered from the collapsed Aeon shopping mall, which was devastated by a suspected gas explosion following Tuesday's earthquake.

Authorities also confirmed eight deaths at the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where part of a red-and-white smokestack collapsed during the quake.

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake left five people in critical condition, while nearly 9,500 residents sought refuge in evacuation centres across Kyushu in southwestern Japan.

The tremor flattened homes, damaged bridges, sparked fires and disrupted electricity and water supplies, with temperatures expected to soar to 38 degrees Celsius over the weekend. Around 13,520 households were still without power on Thursday.

At evacuation centres, hundreds of elderly residents rested on thin mats in community halls to escape the intense heat.

"Thank God for these shelters," one evacuee told AFP, saying conditions at home and inside vehicles were unbearable because of the heat and mosquitoes.

Supermarket employee Hiroyuki Matsushima, 53, said the lack of electricity and air conditioning had made daily life extremely difficult.

Retiree Kenji Ota, 72, said he had been sleeping in his car because his home had neither power nor running water.

"The quake was so strong. It was terrifying... I can only sleep for about two hours each night," he said.

The town of Hikawa was among the worst-hit areas, with many older buildings collapsing and basic utilities still unavailable.

Kinuko Uemura, 85, said she and her husband narrowly survived after their traditional home collapsed. With no functioning toilet, she has been forced to use facilities at a nearby school.

Shop owner Soshiro Okawa described the earthquake as unlike anything he had experienced before.

"It was the first time I felt the ground literally rise beneath me," he said, recalling how the asphalt outside his shop buckled and deep cracks appeared in the building's foundation.

Although he has suspended business operations, Okawa said he hopes to protect the livelihoods of local producers and his employees.

The Aeon shopping mall had been evacuated after the earthquake, but a massive explosion tore through the building about 50 minutes later, leaving an unknown number of employees trapped inside.

Businessman Fumihiko Matsuura, who had visited the mall only days earlier, said he felt he had "narrowly escaped" disaster.

Television footage showed rescue workers navigating twisted steel beams, hanging cables and collapsed concrete as they searched for survivors.

In a rare piece of good news, all 25 cats from a café inside the mall were rescued, prompting widespread relief on social media.

Authorities have also distributed hundreds of air-conditioning units to evacuation shelters, while long queues formed for petrol and drinking water.

Japan's Meteorological Agency measured the earthquake at magnitude 7.1, while the US Geological Survey estimated it at 6.8.

Japan, located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," is among the world's most earthquake-prone countries. Kumamoto was previously struck by two major earthquakes in 2016 that killed 273 people and injured more than 2,800.

The country experiences hundreds of earthquakes each year and accounts for roughly 18 percent of global seismic activity. It also continues to live with the legacy of the devastating magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami in 2011, which left around 18,500 people dead or missing and triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster.