The Kumamoto region located in the southwestern island of Kyushu was the epicentre of the earthquake and it is no stranger to such disasters. In 2016, the volcanic area was the hardest hit by a series of earthquakes, the highest was a 7.0-magnitude just beneath Kumamoto city. In total 277 people were killed, either directly by the earthquake or due to disaster related injuries

At the time, the Guardian reported that tens of thousands of people were evacuated from Mashiki, one of the the worst hit towns.

The Kumamoto Prefecture lies at the southern end of the Japan Median Tectonic Line, Japan’s longest tectonic zone.

Hundreds of injured people have been transported to medical facilities throughout Kumamoto Prefecture, but some hospitals have had to cease operations due to power outages and other issues.

According to a report compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as of 10pm local time, 43 medical institutions in Kumamoto Prefecture have suffered damage such as power outages, water shortages, and inability to use medical gas.

According to the Kyushu Electric Power Transmission and Distribution website, as of 01:30am local time, over 40,000 households in Kumamoto Prefecture are experiencing power outages.

Four people have been rescued from the scene at the Aeon shopping mall, and none of them are in life-threatening condition. The whereabouts of 10 people still remains unknown.

A senior government official told reporters: “We don’t know if it was the cause of the explosion, but there have been reports that gas was leaking. The main gas valve has been shut off, and the police, fire department, and Self-Defense Forces are conducting rescue operations.”

Footage captured inside a Costco in Kumamoto shows shoppers ducking for cover after shelves collapse as the earthquake hit.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK are reporting that two people are in cardiac arrest and nine others are missing following a chimney collapse at Nippon Paper Industries Yatsushiro plant in the Kumamoto.

According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, local firefighters reported that “there are nine people who need to be rescued”.

According to Kumamoto Prefecture, two people were found in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest.

The Aeon mall had just reopened last month as as a new and improved shopping and entertainment complex to commemorate its recovery from the magnitude 7.3 Kumamoto earthquake of 2016, which had left it badly damaged and in need of rebuilding, according to Reuters.

A gas leak may have caused the explosion at the shopping mall where it is feared that a “considerable number” of people may have died.

A senior government official told Japanese reporters that Aeon Mall Kumamoto had reported a gas leak, according to NHK.

The official told journalists that whilst the cause of the explosion has not yet been verified, the main gas valve has now been shut off, and police, fire departments, and the Self-Defense Forces are conducting rescue operations.

An Aeon spokesperson said earlier in the day that the cause of the explosion remained unclear.

When the explosion occurred at southern Kumamoto’s largest shopping mall, a dashcam in a car driving near the scene captured the moment of the explosion.

A shopping centre has partially collapsed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in south-western Japan leaving people trapped inside, according to emergency services.

Today’s earthquake registered a 7.1 magnitude, although that was later revised down to 6.8 by the US Geological Survey.

This graphic shows the shake intensity spreading out from the epicentre of the quake.

Here are are some of the latest photos of damage caused by the earthquake…

Around 20 to 30 workers at ​southern Kumamoto’s largest shopping mall were unaccounted for after it was rocked by an explosion in the ‌aftermath of the quake, NHK said.

Fire services earlier said ‌multiple people were trapped inside.

One side of the mall, which houses around 200 stores, was torn away, exposing steel beams ‌and strewing debris across a vast parking lot, footage showed.

Several ambulances and fire engines were parked outside, as rescue teams searched for survivors.

A spokesperson for mall operator Aeon said customers and employees were evacuated right after the initial quake and that the exact cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Kumamoto Castle, one of Japan’s oldest and most renowned castles, was damaged after today’s powerful earthquake hit. In a brief social media post, the castle’s management wrote:

Due to the impact of the Kumamoto regional earthquake that occurred earlier, today’s operations will be suspended. We ask everyone to prioritize your own safety above all else in your actions.

There have been more than 60 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 1 to 4, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Kyodo News agency said a hospital in Yatsushiro city accepted about 40 people with injuries from the quake.

A train was derailed and fell on its side at the Yatsushiro station, and stone walls were damaged at the Kumamoto castle, Kyodo said.

Yozo Kai, a priest at a Shinto shrine in the nearby town of Mashiki, said a few stone lanterns fell down. “I worried if the main hall and the gate would tilt again,” he told Kyodo.

“The shaking reminded me of the Kumamoto quake (10 years ago) and I was frightened,” said Hiroki Shimoda, an official at the Mifune town hall, who saw rooftiles of nearby homes crash down to the ground.

Kyushu Electric Power said ​48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest ​quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had ​suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains.

Kumamoto airport also shut its runway, as airlines diverted and cancelled flights.

Telecoms operators KDDI and Docomo ​said there was disruption to their mobile ‌phone services due to ​power shortages and transmission-line failures.

There were no irregularities ​reported at the nuclear power stations in the area, Japan’s nuclear regulation authority said.

Speaking to reporters ⁠at her office in Tokyo, ​Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi said the number of casualties and extent of the damage in the area – which was devastated by a tremblor a decade ago – were still being assessed.

“We have already been informed that people have been injured. ⁠Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings,” Takaichi said.

“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.”

Kazuya Tsurunaga told broadcaster TBS he heard the ‌explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon mall.

“It was a huge impact,” he said. “A large cloud of smoke billowed up, and because the wind happened to be blowing and the wind direction was towards the shop, the area around us was in a state like volcanic ash was falling.“

Several other buildings were also on fire or partially collapsed, according to footage from NHK, while large cracks appeared on major roads, including an elevated highway. Rail services were halted and flights grounded.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its plant in the area as a precaution, a spokesperson ‌for the firm said.

Sony and Fujifilm also evacuated staff from their plants in the area, Nikkei newspaper reported. A Sony spokesperson earlier said it was checking the situation.

An aerial image shows the damaged Aeon mall after an earthquake in Kashima, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan.

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has confirmed that the government has assembled an “Emergency Assembly Team” to tackle the disaster.

She wrote on social media:

At around 4:27 p.m. today, an earthquake with its epicenter in the Kumamoto region of Kumamoto Prefecture occurred, and strong shaking with a maximum seismic intensity of 7 was observed in Uki City and Makigawa Town in Kumamoto Prefecture.

In connection with this earthquake, a tsunami advisory has been issued for Ariake Bay and Yatsushiro Sea, and tsunamis of about 1 meter are expected. Please refrain from approaching the coast.

As the government, immediately after the earthquake, we have established the Prime Minister’s Office Countermeasures Room in the Prime Minister’s Office Crisis Management Center, and convened the “Emergency Assembly Team” consisting of bureau chief-level officials from relevant ministries and agencies, and are fully engaged in grasping the damage situation and emergency disaster response measures such as lifesaving and rescue.

A spokesperson for the Japan Meteorological Agency said that it had withdrawn an earlier tsunami warning:

This earthquake occurred inland, and no tsunami activity has been observed so far. For this reason, we hope to lift the tsunami advisory at a relatively early stage, depending on future sea level conditions.

The Japanese government ⁠issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, ​Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, ‌Oita, and Miyazaki ‌prefectures, all on the country’s southern Kyushu ‌island.

Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “ring of fire”.

Japan’s precarious location means it experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year, many of which are mild but others are deadly.

In March 2011, a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed over 18,000 people and triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said on Tuesday that no abnormalities were reported at nuclear power plants after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck earlier today.