The death toll from last Tuesday's magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Kumamoto has risen to 38, authorities said, after rescue operations concluded at the Aeon shopping centre in Kashima, where seven workers were pulled dead from the rubble and five others injured. Police confirmed no missing persons remain at the site.
The disaster has damaged more than 3,400 homes, including 182 completely destroyed, and left water supplies cut to roughly 69,000 households. More than 9,200 residents remain in 210 evacuation shelters as an extreme heatwave compounds the crisis, with around 30 people hospitalised for suspected heatstroke on Saturday as temperatures exceeded 37 degrees Celsius.
Search teams comprising firefighters, Self-Defence Forces and regional police swept the rubble before ending the operation at the mall, where the prefecture also recorded 143 injuries.