A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto prefecture on Japan's Kyushu island on Tuesday, triggering evacuation orders, widespread damage and a brief tsunami warning. The most alarming incident occurred at an Aeon Mall shopping centre, where the second floor collapsed and many people remain trapped, with contact lost with 20 to 30 employees. The quake also caused a chimney to collapse at a paper factory, where people are reported missing, underscoring the scale of disruption in a region with a painful history of seismic disasters.

The quake struck at 16:27 local time, prompting roughly 300,000 people to be told to move to evacuation shelters. Other damage includes collapsed walls at the historic 17th-century Kumamoto castle, a destroyed footbridge, more than 40,000 households left without power, and damaged roads. Japan's Meteorological Agency recorded over 60 aftershocks, while a tsunami warning issued immediately after the quake was lifted within two hours; Kumamoto previously suffered 278 deaths from quakes in 2016.