Kumamoto quake death toll 36 as heat hinders rescue

Rescue operations continued in southwestern Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday amid a rising death toll, as survivors and first responders battled intense summer heat in the aftermath of a major earthquake earlier in the week. The confirmed death toll from the magnitude 7.1 temblor has reached at least 36, with 27 victims identified. The earthquake struck the region at around 4:27 p.m. on Tuesday, registering the highest possible intensity on Japan’s seismic scale.

More than 9,000 people remained in evacuation shelters on Saturday, facing critical water shortages and extreme temperatures forecast to exceed 35 degrees Celsius and potentially reaching 40 C by Monday. Authorities are urging precautions against heatstroke. While electricity has been largely restored, water service remains cut off for tens of thousands of households, and officials are dispatching water trucks. Many residents, fearing aftershocks, continue to sleep in their cars, a practice complicated by fuel shortages needed to run air conditioning.

Search efforts persist beyond the critical 72-hour window for survival, focusing on the hardest-hit locations. At the Aeon Mall in Kashima town, where an explosion...