Emergency responders searched early Wednesday for people feared trapped in a shopping mall in Japan after a major earthquake toppled buildings, sparked fires and reportedly killed one person and injured more than 100.

Private broadcaster TBS reported that a “considerable number” of people were feared dead inside the mall in the town of Kashima after the fire brigade said that the second floor collapsed in the 7.1-magnitude tremor on Tuesday afternoon.

As night fell, regional officials said they believed 10 people were unaccounted for in the mall, public broadcaster NHK reported. It earlier cited police as saying between 20 and 30 of the mall’s employees could not be contacted.

Police told AFP earlier that they could not confirm any fatalities inside the badly damaged building. Kyodo News reported that four people had been taken to hospital, all of them conscious.

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae late Tuesday pledged that emergency responders would work “tirelessly” through the night “starting with the rescue and lifesaving of those affected.”

Multiple people were also believed to be unaccounted for at a factory in Yatsushiro city where the tip of a chimney fell down, NHK reported, citing sources.

One person was killed when a house collapsed during the quake, Kyodo reported.

NHK aired footage from elsewhere in the southwestern Kumamoto region on Kyushu island showing several blazes, damaged bridges, a derailed cargo train and a number of houses threatening to topple over.

The tremor at 4:27 pm (0727 GMT) had a magnitude of 7.1, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, but reached the highest level of seven on Japan’s Shindo scale.

The US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.8.

A succession of aftershocks followed, including one with a magnitude of 6.1 at 5:08 pm.

Hundreds of earthquakes strike Japan every year, but the vast majority cause little damage.