Rescuers search for survivors after a 7.1 quake kills 18 in southwestern Japan

Rescuers in Kumamoto, Japan, continued searching Wednesday for survivors after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least 18 people, including a foreigner, and injured at least 62, six seriously. The quake hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on Kyushu’s southern main island. Major damage was reported at Aeon Mall in Kashima, where thousands of shoppers were present when the shaking occurred. Aeon said about 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion happened in another part of the mall while some workers remained inside. The mall’s second floor collapsed and witnesses said the blast shook the area as much as the earthquake. Aeon President Akio Yoshida said three people remained missing and four deaths were confirmed at the mall site. Elsewhere, a chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro killed five and seven people were rescued.