Several people are dead and dozens unaccounted for Tuesday after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocked the city of Kumamoto, in southern Japan, according to police and the country’s meteorological agency — sending a shopping mall crumbling, causing a bridge to buckle, taking down part of a 400-year-old castle, collapsing a paper factory’s chimney and striking several homes.
At least 50 people are injured, just one hospital reported, and more than 30 mall employees and paper factory workers can’t be reached, with fears they’re dead after getting trapped under rubble, local news outlet NHK reported.
Japan, which sits on the “Ring of Fire,” is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. Many tectonic plates converge in the East Asian nation, causing almost constant tremors.
There is some slight discrepancy about the quake’s magnitude, with Japan recording it as 7.1, but the US Geological Survey pinning it as 6.8.
https://nypost.com/2026/07/28/world-news/japan-earthquake-live-updates-reactions-photos-more/