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Japan rescuers rushed on Wednesday to save people trapped in collapsed buildings after a powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people.
As more than 200 aftershocks continued to jolt Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, rescue teams worked to find people trapped inside partially collapsed structures. Those included a shopping mall and a paper factory in Kumamoto.
Fire response teams and the police joined 4,600 military personnel in the rescue efforts. As of Wednesday afternoon, 10 people had been pulled from the heavily damaged mall. Of that group, three were confirmed dead, one person was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest and five others sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to officials from Kumamoto’s disaster countermeasure department.
Cardiopulmonary arrest is a term often used in Japan before a death can be confirmed by a coroner. The location of three of the mall’s employees could not be confirmed, according to Aeon, which operates the mall.
At the paper plant, 11 people were trapped after its chimney collapsed from the heavy shaking, Kumamoto officials said. As of Wednesday afternoon, five had died, two had suffered injuries and four were still missing.
