A man walks past a damaged building in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto prefecture on July 30, 2026, following the July 28 earthquake. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP)
Kumamoto, Japan: Sniffer dogs in Japan helped rescuers Friday make a final sweep of a shopping mall wrecked by an explosion after a big earthquake, as the death toll from the tremor three days earlier hit 35.
"At the Aeon mall, 11 people were pulled out as of last night (Thursday), among them seven dead. To make sure that no one else is inside, we are finalising our confirmation with the assistance of professionally trained dogs," government spokesman Minoru Kihara said.
Local media quoted the operator of the mall, which was evacuated before being ripped apart by the suspected gas blast over an hour after Tuesday's quake, as saying that all employees were now accounted for.
At the other major disaster site, a paper factory, following the 7.1-magnitude jolt nine bodies have now been recovered and search and rescue operations were terminated, Kihara said.
Two survivors were also extracted from the site where a smokestack collapsed, he said, putting the overall death toll from the quake in the southwestern region of Kumamoto at 35.
Six others were in a critical condition, according to a local disaster management office.
The quake caused widespread damage, flattening homes, damaging bridges, triggering fires and leaving many without electricity and water in temperatures forecast to approach 40C (104F) this weekend.
"Only the electricity is working at home. The gas and water are cut off, so I'm wondering when they'll be fixed," Kosuke Iwasaki, a 27-year-old professional volleyball player, told AFP.
"Drinking water is secured, but there's very little water we can use freely" for example for laundry, said Iwasaki, who moved to Yatsushiro City just a month ago.
Toilets also can't be used if the water is cut off.
As of Friday, 79,000 households had no water, but power cuts were resolved across the whole Kumamoto region, according to the land ministry and the utility.
More than 9,000, many of them elderly, evacuated to shelters.
Although the military airlifted 300 air conditioners to the region, local media reported that many evacuation centers -- mostly in school gymnasiums -- lack air conditioning.
One piece of good news was that 25 felines from a "cat cafe" inside the mall were rescued and transferred to Hiroshima, triggering widespread relief on social media.
Japan is one of the world's most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific "Ring of Fire".
Kumamoto itself was hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2016, which killed 273 people and injured more than 2,800.
The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, typically experiences hundreds of jolts every year and accounts for about 18 percent of the world's earthquakes.
