Residents in Kumamoto prefecture are waking up today to the aftermath of the massive quake. Here are the latest images from the scene:

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

Hiroko Ogata, 75, runs a popular omelet rice restaurant in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture.

She was in the restaurant, which had closed for the day, when the earthquake hit.

"All of sudden there was a big jolt, and I was surprised and scared," she tells the BBC.

"I have lived here for 75 years, but I have never experienced such a big quake. I thought I would die."

"I went under one of the tables right away, but the table moved largely towards right, left, right, left… with me!"

Bowls and glasses from the kitchen shelf started falling and shattering on the floor, she added.

Today she's picking up the pieces at her restaurant - though continuing aftershocks are making her nervous.

"The whole place is messy, and I don’t know where to stand. But we have to earn our living by restarting our restaurant as soon as possible, so I am cleaning the place today," she says.

"A little I work, then we have another aftershock… so it is going so slowly. If we keep having this many aftershocks It will be very stressful."

Image source, JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images

We have more from the Newsday interview with Chantel Mohar, the tourist who witnessed the earthquake.

She says many people were standing outside to stay safe, and some were throwing up. She says they appeared "calm, but very scared".

At one point, she recalls, their bus driver got out to direct traffic.

Water was a concern, as power was out and they could not get bottles of water from vending machines.

"They did a great job at taking care of us. They were really concerned about water," she said of the guides.

"We're here and we're just happy to be here."

Chantel Mohar, an American tourist, was in Kumamoto with her family when the earthquake struck yesterday.

They were travelling on a full tour bus when all their phones went off with earthquake alerts.

"There was just a lot of rocking and confusion," she told the BBC's Newsday programme.

What was meant to be a 2.5-hour ride turned into nine hours, as the bus was made to detour onto an evacuation route.

She says they saw devastation caused by the tremors, including smashed cars and collapsed homes.

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

I've just spoken to a woman whose cake shop is located about 600m (660 yards) from the Aeon mall that partially collapsed during the earthquake.

An explosion ripped through the mall about an hour after the quake.

"I couldn’t tell which sound was the sound of earthquake, and which was the sound of explosion," says the woman, who was sitting in the back office of her shop when the quake struck.

There were no customers in the shop at the time.

"All I could do was hold the chair I was sitting in and big jolts came one after another," she says, appearing to still be in shock.

"I didn’t know what to feel, I couldn’t even feel scared in such a situation. Even now I don’t know what to feel, and I don’t know how to explain."

She has closed her cake shop for today, and there is no visible damage except for things that have fallen from the shelf.

She says she would have to check if her ovens are still functioning before deciding if she can go back to work.

Osmond Chia
Business reporter

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Operations at a Kumamoto semiconductor plant run by Taiwanese chip giant TSMC are "gradually resuming" after the lab recorded a "maximum seismic intensity of level 5", TSMC tells the BBC.

All personnel are safe, TSMC said.

The company has also conducted post-earthquake inspections, and has confirmed the structures to be safe, it said, adding that further assessments continue.

"As there may still be occasional aftershocks, parts of the construction works are suspended as a safety precaution," TSMC said.

Train operations have been suspended on Kyushu island, where the earthquake struck, according to Japan Railways.

The rail operator said seven passengers were injured by the earthquake on the Kyushu Shinkansen, also known as bullet trains, public broadcaster NHK reported.

As the trains were stranded on the broken tracks after the quake, some passengers had to spend the night on the trains, NHK reported.

Repairs are under way.

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

Kumamoto prefecture officials say 9,872 people have been evacuated.

Meanwhile, some 36,700 households are without electricity, they add.

Takaichi also noted hot days are continuing, and told residents and rescue personnel to take preventative measures for heatstroke.

During her update on the situation this morning, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gave her condolences to those who had died and thanked emergency services for their continued efforts.

She says there are still many people waiting to be rescued.

"It’s a race against time," Takaichi said.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday was likely caused by a fault that had been left unruptured after quakes from 2016, experts have told local media.

In April 2016, two quakes - magnitudes 6.5 and 7.3 - struck two days apart, killing more than 270 people.

Those quakes were linked to the Futagawa and Hinagu fault zones, according to experts.

And Tuesday's quake stemmed from an unruptured section of the Hinagu fault zone, Sakai Shinichi, a professor at Tokyo University's Earthquake Research Institute, told public broadcaster NHK

Shinji Toda, a seismology professor, similarly told Kyodo news agency that the 2016 quakes had "caused a significant strain and stress, resulting in movements along part of the Hinagu fault zone" this time.

The Japan Meteorological Agency hasn't directly linked Tuesday's earthquake quake to those from 2016.

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says the death toll from the quake has risen to 13.

We'll bring you more updates as we get them.

Search and rescue operations continue at the Aeon Mall, where three people have died.

Earlier, the local fire service said several people are trapped inside the shopping centre, and there were reports of an explosion.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Fire and Disaster Management Agency

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

A third person has now been confirmed dead, an official from Kumamoto prefecture's Disaster Management Division has said.

The person died after experiencing a cardiac arrest.

Kumamoto - where the collapsed Aeon Mall is located - is a city on Kyushu, one of Japan's four main islands.

The southern island is the third largest and the second most populous.

Image source, BBC News

Chie Kobayashi
BBC News in Japan

Kumamato prefecture public relations official Akino Sonoda says eight people have been rescued from the Aeon Mall.

Four people have been moderately injured, one lightly injured and one is in cardiopulmonary arrest, she adds.

Earlier, we reported that four people had been rescued and 10 were unaccounted for.

Officials are now checking on the number of missing people and information regarding those trapped in the building.

Rescue operations have continued through the night, conducted by the fire department, police and Japan's Self Defence Force.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Rescue efforts have been continuing overnight in the Kumamoto prefecture of Japan, which was struck by an earthquake at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT) on Tuesday. If you're just joining us, here's the latest:

• The magnitude: Japan's Meteorological Agency recorded a provisional magnitude of 7.1, but the US Geological Survey later put it at 6.8.

• Collapsed shopping centre: A rescue operation has been ongoing at Aeon Mall, where eyewitnesses reported seeing an explosion and the second floor collapse. Two women have died there, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reports, citing local officials
• People missing at paper factory: Two people "were found in cardiac arrest" and nine people are still missing after a chimney collapsed at the Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro, a city south of Kumamoto
• More widely in Kumamoto City: Tens of thousands of people experienced power and water outages, at least 45 medical facilities have been damaged, while the exterior walls of a 17th Century castle have tumbled down

• Prime minister sends reinforcements: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi put 3,600 personnel on the ground to assist with recovery, and said that teams would work "tirelessly through the night" to assess and monitor the damage in affected areas
• What was it like: "My TV fell on me",one eyewitness told the BBC, while another described feeling like the "building beneath you turns into liquid". Residents have also been reporting "constant aftershocks" in the hours since the quake

• Fears of more to come: Shinji Kiyomoto of Japan's Meteorological Agency has asked the public to "remain vigilant" for additional earthquakes. He referenced a deadly series of earthquakes that hit the same Kumamoto prefecture days apart in 2016 killing 278 people, according to NHK

Sean Wilson - a Scottish man who lives in Kumamoto - has been describing his experience of the earthquake to the BBC.

He tells the BBC's Outside Source programme that it's the second quake he's experienced there in 10 years. Sean Wilson adds that he also spoke to the BBC in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake that hit the region in 2016.

"This particular area is not that badly damaged compared to what it was 10 years ago," he says

Having experienced the ground shaking 10 years ago, Sean Wilson says he quickly headed to wait by the nearest shelter, but says his new dog was spooked by the sounds and movement of the earth.

"The sound is so disorienting, everything's moving underneath your feet, it's like the land becomes the sea," he says.

"The dog looked terribly upset," he explains, describing how he was forced to run back into his home to grab his pet when it took off".

Sean Wilson says: "I was thinking, this would be terrible if we were both killed while I try to fetch the dog."

Two people are confirmed to have been killed at the collapsed Aeon Mall in Kumamoto, Japan's public broadcaster NHK is reporting, citing the Kumamoto prefecture.

The two people who died were women, the outlet said, adding that another person rescued from the shopping centre is in a state of cardiac arrest.

This follows an earlier update from an official in Kumamoto City's Disaster Management Division, who said that 10 people remained unaccounted for at the shopping centre and four people had been rescued.

Shaimaa Khalil and Flora Drury
BBC News

Not according to Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo.

When authorities issued a megaquake warning in 2024, after a 7.1 quake struck southern Japan, Prof Geller told the BBC that the warning had "almost nothing to do with science".

The advisory was "not a useful piece of information", he said.

This, he argued, is because while earthquakes are known to be a "clustered phenomenon", it is "not possible to tell in advance whether a quake is a foreshock or an aftershock”.

Indeed, only about 5% of earthquakes are "foreshocks", geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard have said.

Image source, Getty Images

However, the 2011 earthquake was preceded by a 7.2 magnitude foreshock, they note - one which was largely ignored.

The warning system was drawn up after 2011 in an attempt to prevent a disaster of this scale again. August 2024 was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) used it.

But, crucially, while it told people to be prepared, it did not tell anyone to evacuate. Indeed, they were keen to play down any massive imminent risk.

"The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur," the JMA said at the time.