KUMAMOTO, Japan - The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan earlier this week has reached 30, including those suspected to be disaster-related, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Thursday.
The Kumamoto prefectural government's tally, meanwhile, put the total of confirmed deaths at 18, including eight at Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s plant in Yatsushiro and six at an Aeon shopping mall in Kashima that was rocked by an explosion following the magnitude 7.1 quake two days prior.
Also included in the prefecture's tally were three others confirmed dead in Yatsushiro and one in the town of Kosa.
The one remaining missing person at the paper plant, where multiple smokestacks were badly damaged, has been found, according to sources close to the matter, but the person's condition is unknown.
Separately, the Uki city government told Kyodo News that it was aware of two deaths in the city but had yet to report the cases to the prefecture.
Vietnam News Agency reported that one Vietnamese trainee died after being crushed by a crane in a factory in Kosa.
Discrepancy in casualty figures released by the central government and Kumamoto Prefecture exists at this stage because the state relies on police and fire service data, while the prefecture tallies numbers reported by municipalities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference in Tokyo.
As of Thursday morning, more than 10,000 people were staying in evacuation centers. About 23,000 households were without electricity and some 75,000 households without water, according to the prefecture, raising concerns about residents' well-being.
JR Kyushu said bullet train service between Kumamoto and Kagoshima-chuo stations on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line has yet to resume as it struggles to assess the damage. It also gave up on initial hopes of resuming the section between Chikugo-Funagoya Station in Fukuoka Prefecture and Kumamoto Station on Thursday, cancelling all runs for the day.
Tuesday's temblor registered the maximum of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in Uki and Hikawa at 4:27 p.m.
At that level, people cannot remain standing or move without crawling and may be thrown through the air, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
