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Rescuers search for survivors after a 7.1 quake kills 18 in southwestern Japan
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Northwest Asian Weekly
By MARI YAMAGUCHIKUMAMOTO, Japan (AP) — Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people, including a foreigner, in southwestern Japan.
Fumika Ono was shopping at a mall with her older sister when the ground shook so fiercely she lost her balance and ducked.
In the Nuyamazu district, a pair of temple gates at a 16th-century Buddhist temple collapsed.
Nearly 34,900 homes were still without electricity and some 15,000 homes without running water, Kumamoto officials said.
Japan’s Self Defense Forces joined rescue workers in the search and rescue operations.