“I thought a bomb had gone off,” Takateru Sonoda, 41, who runs a combined hair salon and cafe near the mall, told news agency Jiji Press. The status of three shop workers remains unknown, Aeon said, adding that it was investigating a possible gas leak as a potential cause for the explosion. Aeon mall had just reopened last month, a new and improved shopping and entertainment complex, after its recovery from another deadly tremor a decade ago. Aeon President Akio Yoshida told a news conference on Wednesday that staff evacuated 3,000 shoppers within half an hour after the quake hit. Yoshida said the possibility the explosion was caused by gas was “very high”, but that thorough investigations were needed to understand what went wrong.