‘Like volcanic ash falling’: Inside Aeon mall after Japan’s earthquake

Japanese PM Takaichi says it’s a ‘race against time’ to rescue those still trapped in the mall and others affected by the quake.Thousands of shoppers and store employees, quickly evacuated by staff after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, watched in horror as an explosion ripped through Kumamoto’s Aeon-mall" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="174524" data-entity-type="organization">Aeon mall, exposing steel beams and catapulting debris across the parking lot.Workers in and around one of southern Japan’s largest shopping centres described being thrown to the ground and enveloped in a disorienting cloud of dust by the explosion that followed the massive quake on Tuesday.“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.“There were people calling on others to evacuate, and sirens were ringing out. Nearby roads were gridlocked; it was a state of panic.”First responders, initially fearful of entering the wreckage, hauled eight people from the partially collapsed site early on Wednesday, three dead among them.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.Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Wednesday that it was a “race against time” to rescue those trapped in the mall and others affected by the quake.About 170 soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations at the site.All 25 cats left behind in a cat cafe during the hasty evacuation were rescued on Wednesday, the cafe owner said in a social media post, thanking rescue workers.Aeon-mall" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="174524" data-entity-type="organization">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.