RESCUE EFFORTS CONTINUE AT DAMAGED AEON – 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan
Rescue efforts continued at the damaged Aeon mall on Wednesday, a day after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan which killed at least 13 people, knocked out power to thousands of homes and ruptured roads across the region.
The mall, the biggest in the prefecture, had just reopened last month as a new and improved shopping and entertainment complex to commemorate its recovery from another deadly tremor a decade ago.
After being badly damaged in the magnitude 7.3 Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016, the operator highlighted its seismically reinforced ceilings and overall improvements to safety and resilience as part of its redevelopment.
Located on the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more
