RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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KUMAMOTO, Japan \u2014 Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people, including a foreigner, in southwestern Japan.The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, the prefectural government said. The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to rise.Some of the most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in the town of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened. The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working.Fumika Ono was shopping at a mall with her older sister when the ground shook so fiercely she lost her balance and ducked. Children began screaming and goods scattered on the floor.The 19-year-old was among the crowd of shoppers who managed to escape safely.The sweltering weather heightened worries about the survivors as rescuers braved the heat. It remained unclear how many people might still be missing.The mall's second floor collapsed, trapping people. Witnesses said the explosion shook the area as much as the quake.Three people remained missing, while four deaths were confirmed at the mall site, according to Aeon President Akio Yoshida. The AEON Mall destroyed by an explosion following an earthquake, in Kashima, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, on Wednesday. Three people remain missing following the explosion. (Photo: Naoki Hiraoka, Kyodo News via AP) "We take it seriously that an explosion happened and precious lives were lost," Yoshida told a news conference in Kumamoto, where he bowed deeply along with two other executives.Japanese media footage of the mall showed that part of the ceiling had caved in, and metal pieces and other debris were scattered about as helmeted and masked rescue workers searched the area.Kiyoshi Matsunaga, 74, who lives in the mall's neighborhood and was at a supermarket just a few blocks away, said Tuesday's quake reminded him of a deadly quake 10 years ago that hit Kumamoto and killed 50 people.He stopped in his tracks when the shaking began while he was pushing his cart toward a cash register. Things scattered from the shelves. He could not move, he recalled."
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