Two full days after a devastating magnitude 7.1 earthquake tore through rural communities on Japan’s Kyushu Island, rescuers are locked in a race against the clock to locate trapped survivors, as the official death toll from the disaster rose to at least 23 by Thursday. The powerful tremor, which struck Tuesday afternoon in Kumamoto Prefecture, triggered a string of catastrophic secondary damage: it sparked an explosion at a crowded regional shopping mall, toppled a factory chimney, and reduced hundreds of residential structures to rubble, leaving dozens injured and hundreds unaccounted for. The Kumamoto prefectural government confirmed that at least 63 people sustained injuries in the quake, five of whom are in critical condition, though the full number of people missing across the affected region has not yet been confirmed. For those who escaped the initial collapse of their homes, the immediate aftermath was marked by frantic efforts: many survivors described returning to flattened properties to dig through debris with their bare hands to pull trapped family members out, with dozens rushed to area hospitals for emergency treatment. Thousands of displaced residents have been forced to seek emergency shelter in large public facilities including community gymnasiums across the region, with many spending a second frigid night away from their homes on Wednesday. Many properties remain cut off from running water and power, while even homeowners with structurally intact homes say they are too afraid of aftershocks to return to their properties. Japan is globally recognized for its strict, earthquake-resistant building codes, developed in response to the country’s frequent seismic activity, but the affected region is home to a large number of older traditional Japanese homes, which lack the modern reinforcement needed to withstand powerful tremors, leaving them disproportionately vulnerable to collapse. The worst single loss of life occurred at the Aeon Mall in Kashima Town, a popular retail hub that was packed with thousands of shoppers when the quake hit in the late afternoon. Company officials confirmed that roughly 3,000 customers were successfully evacuated to an open parking lot before an explosion struck a less crowded section of the mall where maintenance and retail staff were still working. The quake caused the mall’s second floor to cave in, trapping multiple people who had not yet exited the building. Kumamoto local authorities confirmed that as of early Thursday, six of the 11 people pulled from the mall’s wreckage have been declared dead. In sweltering, humid conditions, anxious family members of people still unaccounted for have gathered near the ruined mall, wandering the perimeter waiting for updates on their loved ones with little information to go on. Another major disaster unfolded at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where a large factory chimney toppled during the tremor. Disaster response teams confirmed that 10 workers were pulled from the rubble alive, but eight workers were killed, and one remains missing. As of Thursday, more than 22,800 homes across the prefecture remain without power, and more than 10,000 people are sheltering in roughly 400 emergency evacuation centers. Response teams have been working to install additional power capacity at the shelters to run air conditioning, as residents cope with unseasonably hot weather in the aftermath of the disaster. Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama contributed reporting from Tokyo, Japan.