Japan Earthquake

Soldiers and emergency workers are combing through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu. The prefectural government said it left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously. The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to rise. It remains unclear how many people might still be missing.

The Kumamoto prefectural government says the powerful earthquake that hit southwestern Japan earlier this week has now killed at least 23 people. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Tuesday set off an explosion at a mall, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes in the Kumamoto area on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu. Time was running out to find survivors as rescuers continued to work. The total number of those missing was unclear. The quake left at least 63 people injured, five of them seriously, the prefectural government said.