Japan quake toll rises, people still missing in damaged mall and factory

Kumamoto, Japan — Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit a day earlier in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu, also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, the prefectural government said. The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to rise. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake as a magnitude 6.8.

The sweltering weather heightened worries about the survivors as rescuers braved the heat. It remained unclear how many people might still be missing.

Some of the most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in Kashima city, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.

The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working.

The mall's second floor collapsed, trapping people. Witnesses said the explosion shook the area as much as did the quake.

Aeon Mall president Akio Yoshida told reporters at the site on Wednesday that three people were still missing — all story employees who had been working when the explosion struck. He said three people were confirmed to have been killed in the blast.

"We take it seriously that an explosion happened and precious lives were lost," Yoshida said, bowing deeply along with two other executives.

CBS News correspondent Anna Coren was at the scene on Wednesday as work continued to locate people still trapped inside the structure. She spoke with a man who helped evacuate 200 shoppers, but believed his 23-year-old friend was working inside the mall when the suspected gas explosion went off an hour after the quake.

"I'm worried," he told CBS News. "He's a close friend for a long time, and I'm wanting him to just be safe."

A girl at the scene told Coren that when Kumamoto was last hit by a major earthquake, 10 years ago, she was in an area devastated by the temblor, "but what happened yesterday was so strong, I felt like death was close."

Japanese media aired video of the mall showing part of a ceiling had caved in, and metal parts and other debris were scattered about as helmeted and masked rescue workers searched the area.

In nearby Yatsushino, a chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory killed five people while seven others were rescued from the debris, according to the Kumamoto pre