Rescue personnel are working to free those trapped in collapsed buildings after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Kumamoto on Tuesday. The fire department said the second floor of the Aeon Mall in Kashima collapsed, leaving many people trapped inside. Nineteen people remain missing at the shopping centre and a damaged paper factory, while four were rescued and another 10 are still missing. In Yatsushiro City, two people were found in cardiac arrest and nine are unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at Nippon Paper's Yatsushiro Plant.

The quake hit Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT), prompting hundreds of thousands to move to evacuation shelters. A tsunami warning was lifted within an hour. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) initially reported a magnitude 7.1 tremor, later revised to 6.8 by the US Geological Survey. The shallow epicentre, at a depth of 10 km, was about 20 km south of Kumamoto city. Train services were suspended, electricity cut off for thousands of homes, and dozens injured, including about 10 in an elderly care home and at least 50 hospitalized.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 3,600 soldiers would be deployed to aid recovery as aftershocks continued, with more than 60 recorded ranging from magnitude 1 to 4. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed no damage or safety issues at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, located around 100 km from the epicentre. Japan, one of the world's most earthquake‑prone nations, experiences roughly 1,500 quakes yearly; in 2016 a series of powerful quakes in Kumamoto killed 278 people.