Scores trapped as Japan quakes toll reaches 32

Kumamoto / AFP

Scores of people were feared buried alive on Saturday after two powerful quakes hit southern Japan a day apart, killing at least 32 people, and as a forecast storm threatened more devastating landslides.
Homes, roads and railway lines were swept away when huge hillsides collapsed, as thousands of tonnes of mud was dislodged by the thunderous seismic tremors. Buildings were reduced to rubble, including a university dormitory and apartment complexes, with dozens of people unaccounted for over a wide area. “We are aware of multiple locations where people have been buried alive,” chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.
“Police, firefighters and Self Defense Force personnel are doing all they can to rescue them.”
Around 70,000 people have been evacuated, including 300 from an area close to a dam thought to be at risk of collapse.
A hospital was left teetering by Saturday morning’s 7.0 quake, with doctors and patients rushed from the building in darkness.
Isolated villages in the mountainous area of Kumamoto were completely cut off by landslides and damage to roads, with at least 1,000 people believed trapped in one area alone.
Aerial footage showed a bridge on a main trunk road had crashed onto the carriageway below it, its pillars felled.
The quake came as emergency responders were working to reach areas already affected by a 6.2 magnitude tremor that struck late Thursday.
Adding to worries was the eruption of a nearby volcano, although seismologists cautioned there was no evidence of a link and said activity was limited.
Aftershocks continued to rock Kumamoto and its surroundings, an area unaccustomed to the powerful quakes that regularly shake other parts of seismically-prone Japan.
Thursday’s initial quake affected older buildings and killed nine people, but Saturday’s brought newer structures crashing down