The death toll from the earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan's southwestern Kyushu island has risen to 28, with at least 62 injured, six of them seriously. Soldiers and rescue workers are racing to find survivors trapped under collapsed buildings, especially at the Aeon Mall in Kashima City, where the second floor collapsed and a subsequent gas explosion killed four people and left three others missing from among the thousands inside at the time. At the Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro City, a collapsed chimney killed five people and another four are believed trapped under the debris. The first foreign fatality has also been reported, a Vietnamese technical intern trainee who died when a crane fell on him at a factory. The magnitude 7.1 quake struck on Tuesday, leaving nearly 34,900 homes without power, forcing more than 8,800 people to evacuate to shelters, and keeping high-speed rail services suspended.
Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.A chimney collapse at Nippon Paper Industries plant killed five and trapped four, disrupting operations.