Several people are trapped inside a shopping center after a strong earthquake hit south-west Japan, officials say, the BBC reports.
Some local media report that there was an explosion at the Aeon Mall in Kumamoto, following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
The quake hit inland on Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT), with more than 150,000 people being told to move to evacuation shelters. There was a brief tsunami warning that was lifted within the hour.
Emergency services said “many people” were trapped inside the Aeon Mall in the Kumamoto region.
In the town of Kashima, “a shopping complex’s second floor collapsed, leaving many people trapped inside,” the fire department said in a statement.
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, experiencing about 1,500 quakes a year.
Japan’s meteorological agency says there were a total of 61 aftershocks recorded following today’s initial earthquake.
It says these ranged from one to six in seismic intensity.
Tuesday’s earthquake caused “no damage or safety issues” at the Sendai nuclear power plant, around 100km from the epicenter of the quake, says the international atomic watchdog.
In a post on X, the International Atomic Energy Agency says that the plant “remains in operation” and the group will “continue to monitor the situation”.
