"Put It in the Safe" and Sent Back to Death... Grieving Mother Cries Out, "Now My Daughter Is Gone"

[Anchor]

Moving now to the strong earthquakes in Kumamoto, Japan. It has been revealed that some of the seven employees who died at the large shopping mall where the explosion occurred had returned to the store upon company instructions before meeting their tragic fate. Secondary damage is also mounting as heatwaves exceeding 40°C hit the affected areas.

Tokyo Correspondent Mun Junmo reports.

[Reporter]

The AEON Mall explosion on June 28 [Note: Referring to June 28].

While 3,000 visitors and others evacuated, seven employees of tenant stores lost their lives.

Otake Kurumi, a 22-year-old general merchandise store employee, had initially evacuated before the accident, but met her doom because she went back inside the store.

[Bereaved Family Member: (Otake) said she had to go back to the store once because the company told her to put the sales proceeds in the safe.]

According to AEON Mall's manual, returning to the premises is prohibited in the event of an earthquake until safety has been confirmed.

Company representatives who visited the mortuary bowed their heads.

[Company Representative: We offer our deepest apologies to the bereaved families.]

[Otake's Mother: My daughter can never come back now.]

The police are expanding their investigation, believing that other employees may have followed similar instructions.

As extreme heatwaves exceeding 40°C rage on, residents are suffering from threats to their survival.

In Hikawa Town, which suffered the maximum seismic intensity of 7, a woman in her 70s living out of her car was found dead.

At the time she was discovered, her vehicle had run out of fuel and the air conditioning was not working.

Believed to be a heatstroke death, it is considered the first disaster-related death resulting from these earthquakes.

Including this woman, the death toll from the earthquakes has reached 38, but casualties could rise further.

About 46,000 households are still suffering from water outages, and aside from the roughly 8,300 people currently staying in over 160 shelters, a significant number of residents are living in cars or tents.

Prime Minister Takaichi inspected the affected areas in Kumamoto six days after the earthquake.

Passing over the AEON Mall and the Nippon Paper Industries plant—where victims emerged—aboard a Self-Defense Forces helicopter, she clasped her hands in prayer to mourn the dead before visiting a shelter in Hikawa Town.

[Sanae Takaichi / Prime Minister of Japan: Please tell us what is difficult or what you are anxious about. The government will do whatever it can.]

The Japanese government announced it will begin accepting applications for secondary shelters such as hotels and inns, while launching large-scale support measures including the installation of emergency temporary housing and securing vehicle fuel.

(Camera: Han Chul-min, Moon Hyun-jin | Video Editing: Kim Byung-jik)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.