A shopping mall in Kumamoto Prefecture, southern Japan, which had only just reopened after years of reconstruction following the devastating 2016 earthquake, was destroyed on Tuesday when a powerful new earthquake struck the region, followed by a large explosion. Dozens of workers at the site were left unaccounted for, and the incident is a bitter blow for a community that had held up the mall's reopening as a symbol of its long recovery.

The Aeon Mall had celebrated its grand reopening on 13 June, marking the culmination of years of rebuilding work after the original 2016 disaster devastated the region. Just weeks later, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near Kumamoto, triggering an explosion at the mall and prompting a search for missing workers, though full details of casualties and the cause of the blast had not yet been confirmed.