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Second quake hits Japan’s Kyushu
April 15, 2016, 9:18 pm

The death toll is expected to rise in Kyushu after the second quake which was revised from a magnitude 7.0 to 7.3 [Xinhua]

The death toll is expected to rise in Kyushu after the second quake which was revised from a magnitude 7.0 to 7.3 [Xinhua]


A second quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale has struck Japan’s southern island of Kyushu less than two days after an initial earthquake and series of aftershocks.

Residents of Mashiki, the hardest hit town, were still pulling survivors from under the rubble of buildings leveled by Thursday’s 6.4 magnitude earthquake when the second more powerful quake hit at 1:30am local Japanese time.

Nine people were reported dead and at least 1,000 injured in Thursday’s earthquake. Power lines were downed leaving survivors without power. Some 50,000 people left their homes in the Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyushu for shelters set up by emergency relief services.

News services were still compiling reports of casualties from the second quake. At press time, authorities in Kumamoto told the Associated Press that at least one person had died from the second quake and that a hospital housing 500 injured was evacuated early Saturday morning.

According to local media, relief and ambulance services received several calls of people trapped in their homes and collapsed buildings. A number of government buildings on the island have been partially destroyed, Japanese TV reported.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies