Thirteen people are confirmed to have died in an earthquake that struck south-west Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said

Rescue efforts are underway at a shopping mall in Kumamoto, where many people are trapped - one witness reported the second floor collapsing

Earlier, a Japanese official told the BBC that multiple people are unaccounted for at the centre, and at a factory after a chimney collapsed

The earthquake - estimated at 6.8 magnitude by the US Geological Survey - hit inland on Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT) on Tuesday

The solid ground just suddenly turned into a mass that was moving, one eyewitness tells the BBC

Dramatic footage from inside a shop 3.5km (two miles) east of the shopping centre shows children crying and products all over the floor.

“Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race ‌against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible,” Takaichi told reporters at her office in Tokyo a day after the quake struck, raising the toll from three deaths reported earlier.

The quake knocked out power to thousands of homes and ruptured roads across the region.

Rescuers pulled eight people from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall early on Wednesday. Two women in their 20s were killed as an apparent explosion of unknown origin ripped the mall apart about an hour after the earthquake.

Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion, local media reported.

Emergency fire rescue teams, police and army personnel were focusing ⁠on areas of the building where calls for help.

Operations at a Kumamoto semiconductor plant run by Taiwanese chip giant TSMC are "gradually resuming" after the lab recorded a "maximum seismic intensity of level 5", TSMC tells the BBC.

All personnel are safe, TSMC said.

The company has also conducted post-earthquake inspections, and has confirmed the structures to be safe, it said, adding that further assessments continue.

"As there may still be occasional aftershocks, parts of the construction works are suspended as a safety precaution," TSMC said.

Train operations have been suspended on Kyushu island, where the earthquake struck, according to Japan Railways.

The rail operator said seven passengers were injured by the earthquake on the Kyushu Shinkansen, also known as bullet trains, public broadcaster NHK reported.

As the trains were stranded on the broken tracks after the quake, some passengers had to spend the night on the trains, NHK reported.

Repairs are under way.