Soldiers and emergency workers are combing through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 13 people and left many missing in southwestern Japan.
Bullet train services and some airport operations remained suspended and damage was still being assessed a day after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu.
Shopping mall collapsed in Kumamoto near the epicentre of the quake on Kyushu one of Japan's four main islands. (Source: 1News)
"There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it's a race against time," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.
"We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can."
About 36,900 homes were still without electricity, 9500 homes were without gas and communication networks were not working in some areas, chief government spokesman Minoru Kihara told reporters.
More than 9000 people left their homes to stay in more than 500 shelters, and he said power sources were being added so the evacuation centres had air conditioning. Japan has had an ongoing heat wave, and temperatures in the area were forecast to exceed 32C.
Japan's Self Defence Forces joined rescue workers in the search and rescue operations at the badly damaged Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima.
The building's second floor collapsed, trapping people, after an explosion, suspected to have been caused by a gas leak. The number of people who still may be trapped was not available.
A chimney collapsed at the Nippon Paper Industries Company's Yatsushiro factory, trapping people under the debris, the Kumamoto emergency team said. As of Wednesday, seven people were feared still trapped. Two survivors and two bodies were removed, officials said.
Takaichi said the federal government was preparing to deliver food and other necessities to hard-hit areas. She also offered her condolences to the victims and sympathy to their relatives, while urging those affected by the quake to take care of themselves under the hot weather.
The Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train remained suspended Wednesday. Aso Kumamoto Airport was resuming operations after closing one runway Tuesday, but officials said some flights may be cancelled.
Stone walls were damaged at Kumamoto Castle, a main tourist destination that was badly damaged in the 2016 quake and is still being repaired, Kyodo News reported.
"The shaking reminded me of the Kumamoto quake (10 years ago) and I was frightened," said Hiroki Shimoda, an official at Mifune town hall, who saw roof tiles of nearby homes crash to the ground.
Kumamoto was hit with a deadly quake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people.
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New Zealander Megan Wilson, who has lived in Kumamoto for nearly three years teaching English, was on a video call with her mother in New Zealand when the earthquake struck.
"We were mid video call at about 4.30pm and then the earthquake hit. We were on the phone together throughout the whole situation."
It wasn't Wilson's first experience of a major quake as she was from Christchurch, but she said the experience never gets easier.
"The scary part is that you don't know how long it's going to last, or if it's going to get stronger. The possibility of aftershocks is also quite scary."
She lives around 30 minutes from Aeon Mall in Kumamoto's south, where an explosion tore through the shopping complex following the quake.
"That was hit extremely harshly," she said. "We're trying to steer clear and let the emergency services do what they need to do."
– additional reporting by 1News.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a powerful quake hits Japan, Winston Peters lashes out at the Greens, and a shark bite caught on camera. (Source: 1News)
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