The dead from the earthquake in Japan rise to 18 and the search for survivors faces key moments

BarcelonaAt least 18 people have died and more than 200 have been injured in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook the southwest of the Japanese archipelago this Tuesday, according to the latest official figures, making it the deadliest recorded in the country in the last two years. The epicenter was located 20 kilometers from the city of Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu, and reached the maximum level of the Japanese seismic scale in several areas of the region.

The quake has caused the collapse of several buildings, power outages, and the collapse of some infrastructure. Beyond the material damage, about 9,000 people have been evacuated and more than 36,000 homes remain without electricity, some even without water.

24 hours after the tragedy, 2,600 soldiers, 2,000 police officers, and 1,410 firefighters are working against the clock to find survivors under the rubble: "More than 20 hours have passed since the disaster, but there are still people waiting for help," lamented the Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Several people trapped in the rubble of a shopping center

Three people have died due to the collapse of a shopping center of the Aeon chain, near the city of Kumamoto, which had just reopened last month after completing its recovery from the deadly 2016 earthquake. The incident occurred 1 hour and 20 minutes after the quake, following an explosion. "I thought a bomb had exploded," Takateru Sonoda, a 41-year-old hairdresser who was near the scene, told the Japanese news agency Jiji Press.

The official causes of the detonation are not yet known, although government sources point to a possible gas leak as the most plausible explanation. A theory that the president of Aeon has considered "very probable" but has requested an investigation to confirm it, as the establishment "underwent a safety check last month and no accidents have ever been reported".

Although there is not yet an exact figure for the total number of missing people, the shopping center has reported that at least three workers remain trapped under the debris. Aeon reports that at the time of the earthquake, the evacuation of the 3,000 people inside the premises began, although not all of them were able to leave the complex before the explosion.

The earthquake also caused the death of at least five people due to the collapse of a large chimney at the Nippon Paper Industries paper factory, where rescue teams are working to locate four people who remain trapped. The factory is located in Yaturisho, one of the localities most devastated by the tragedy, with cracked roads and several damaged homes.

Risk of saturation and new earthquakes

Authorities warn of the saturation of the healthcare system: "We have 400 hospital beds, but we are already running out of space," explains the spokesperson for the North Community Medical Center hospital to the public broadcaster NHK. Many healthcare centers have also suffered damage to their infrastructure, with "water leaks and electrical system failures," details the spokesperson. Likewise, the prime minister has requested collaboration: "We ask each operational unit to continue increasing its staff".

The Japan Meteorological Agency has registered 195 seismic aftershocks since the moment of the initial earthquake and warns of the risk of more occurring in the coming hours. Furthermore, given the forecast that temperatures will reach 35 degrees this Wednesday, authorities emphasize the importance of not overexposing oneself to the heat when carrying out rescue work.

The Kumamoto area already experienced an earthquake 10 years ago in which 275 people died and 2,739 were injured. "The 2016 earthquake modified the stress field in the region and it seems likely that this Tuesday's earthquake is, at least in part, a consequence of this," explains Luca Malatesta, a geologist and associate professor at the Disaster Research Institute of Tohoku University, to Efe.