Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake in Southern Japan Kills at Least 34
Tuesday's quake in Kumamoto Prefecture set off an explosion at a shopping mall, damaged a paper mill and flattened homes. More than 10,000 people went to evacuation centers.
The death toll from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu on Tuesday, July 28, rose to 34, the prefectural government said Friday, July 31, according to the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. More than 80 people were injured. The quake struck at about 4:27 p.m. local time near the city of Uki and reached the top level, 7, on Japan's seismic intensity scale in Uki and Hikawa.
Nearly half of the deaths were linked to two sites: an explosion that partly collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima, and structural damage at a Nippon Paper Industries mill. The quake knocked out power to about 40,000 homes, halted rail service and triggered tsunami alerts along parts of Kyushu's coast. More than 10,000 people were staying in evacuation centers as of Thursday, the prefecture said. A major earthquake in Kumamoto in 2016 killed 275 people.
Correction, Aug. 8, 2026. Update: The death toll rose to 39 as of August 8, including 36 deaths directly caused by the quake, and more than 6,500 people remained in evacuation shelters, the Kumamoto prefectural government said, according to Xinhua via Bernama.
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