Japan earthquake: Survivors say they were shocked by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake

Business was winding down for the day at Sendan Shokudo, a diner in the southwestern Japanese city of Yatsushiro, when the entire building suddenly erupted.

Everything on the kitchen shelves is strewn on the floor; Bowls and glasses were broken.

The restaurant’s owner, 75-year-old Hiroko Ogata, just walked in.

“I was surprised and scared,” she told the BBC. “I immediately went under one of the tables, but the table quickly moved right, left, right, left with me.”

Ogata lived her entire life in Yatsushiro in central Kumamoto Prefecture.

The area sits on an active tectonic fault system and is no stranger to tremors – a pair of earthquakes struck in 2016, killing 277 people and injuring 2,800 others.

But Ogata has “never experienced this big of a panic attack”.

“The earthquake 10 years ago was not like this,” she said. “I thought I was going to die.”

At least 13 people were killed in a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Kumamoto late Tuesday.

Three of them were found at the Aon shopping mall in Kumamoto city, and dozens are believed to be still in custody.

Rescue efforts are underway, but Prime Minister Sana Takaichi has warned that emergency services are in a “race against time”.