Japan earthquake survivors escaped the shaking. Then a mall exploded

4 min readJul 29, 2026 02:02 PM IST Damaged cars in a parking lot at the Aeon Mall shopping centre, where an explosion occurred after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck Japans southern Kumamoto prefecture, July 29, 2026. (REUTERS) A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Japan on Tuesday triggered a second disaster when a shopping mall partially collapsed in a suspected gas explosion about an hour later, killing at least 13 people and leaving several others missing as rescuers raced against time to search for survivors. Eight people were pulled from the rubble of the partially collapsed Aeon shopping mall near Kumamoto, but three later died, news agency Reuters reported. Mall operator Aeon said four employees remained unaccounted for after checks of its roughly 2,