TOKYO — One person was killed when a house collapsed during a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan on Tuesday, Kyodo News reported.

 

Authorities said that many people were also feared trapped inside a shopping mall that was badly damaged by the quake in the Kumamoto region.

 

A strong 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Japan on Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, issuing a tsunami alert.

 

The tremor at 4:27 pm (0727 GMT) on the island of Kyushu also measured at the highest possible level seven on Japan's own Shindo scale of shaking, the agency said.

 

The tsunami could measure up to one metre and arrive at around 5:00 pm (0800 GMT), it said.

 

Broadcaster NHK said that waves of up to that level may already have been recorded.

 

A quake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit northern Japan on June 25 but caused no deaths or major damage.

 

Japan is one of the world's most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific "Ring of Fire".

 

The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, typically experiences hundreds of jolts every year and accounts for about 18 percent of the world's earthquakes.

 

The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth's surface at which they strike.

 

It is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.

 

On April 20 this year, a tremor measuring 7.7 hit the country's north, injuring at least 10 people and shaking large buildings in Tokyo.

 

This prompted authorities to issue a special advisory warning of an increased risk of earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or stronger.

 

The advisory was lifted after a week.