Quake Then Explosion: Inside the Disaster at a Japanese Shopping Mall

KUMAMOTO, Japan, July 29 - Employees at a shopping center in southern Japan said they were knocked to the ground or surrounded by dust when a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook the building Tuesday. They were the fortunate ones. The worse catastrophe came an hour later.*

Hundreds of customers and retail staff, quickly directed by workers to leave, watched in shock as a blast tore through the structure, revealing its steel framework and hurling debris into the parking area.

First responders, initially hesitant to go into the rubble, pulled eight people from the partly collapsed building early Wednesday, including three who had died. The condition of four store employees is still unknown, shopping center operator Aeon (8267.T) said, adding that it was looking into a possible gas leak.

"I thought a bomb had detonated," Takateru Sonoda, 41, who operates a combined hair salon and cafe close to the mall, told news agency Jiji Press.

"People were shouting for others to get out and alarms were going off. Roads nearby were jammed, it was chaos," Sonoda said.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday that it was a "race against time" to save those still trapped in the mall and others impacted by the quake. About 170 soldiers have been sent to assist with rescue efforts at the scene.