Japan Quake Rescuers Search On as Toll Stands at 18
Rescuers in southern Japan searched through a second day for survivors of the powerful earthquake that has killed at least eighteen people, with several still missing. Crews picked through a collapsed shopping mall and a paper factory in Kumamoto prefecture, on the island of Kyushu. The magnitude-7.1 quake struck in the early hours of Wednesday.
Hopes of finding survivors faded as the hours passed, though rescuers had pulled several people alive from the rubble and from fires on the first day. Tens of thousands of homes were left without power or water, and evacuation centres filled as aftershocks continued to rattle the region. Japan’s rigorous building codes are again credited with limiting the toll from so strong a quake. The government has pledged a full emergency response. Watch for the final casualty count as the search winds down.