A resident walks through the debris after a 7.0 earthquake hit southern Japan. Picture: Kyodo News.

Homes, roads and railway lines were swept away when huge hillsides collapsed as thousands of tonnes of mud was dislodged by the thunderous seismic tremors.

Buildings were reduced to rubble, including a university dormitory and apartment complexes, with dozens of people unaccounted for over a wide area.

“We are aware of multiple locations where people have been buried alive,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

“Police, firefighters and Self Defense Force (military) personnel are doing all they can to rescue them.” More than 90,000 people have been evacuated, including 300 from an area near a dam thought to be at risk of collapse.

A hospital was left teetering by yesterday’s 7.0 quake, with doctors and patients rushed from the building in darkness.

Destroyed ... People walk along a road destroyed by an earthquake in Kumamoto, Japan. Picture: Taro Karibe/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images

Isolated villages in mountainous areas near the city of Kumamoto were completely cut off by landslides and damage to roads. At least 500 people were believed trapped in one settlement and expected to spend the night in public buildings, reports said.

Aerial footage showed a bridge on a main trunk road had crashed onto the carriageway below it, its pillars felled.

The quake came as emergency responders were working to reach areas hit by a 6.2 magnitude tremor that struck late Thursday. Both quakes were very shallow and caused violent shaking.

The eruption of a nearby volcano fuelled fears, although seismologists cautioned there was no evidence of a link to the quake and said activity was limited.

‘AFTERSHOCKS’

Aftershocks continued to rock Kumamoto on Kyushu island and its surroundings, an area unaccustomed to the powerful quakes that regularly rattle other parts of Japan.

Thursday’s initial quake affected older buildings and killed nine people, but Saturday’s brought newer structures crashing down, including a municipal office in the city of Uto.

“The death toll rose to 41,” Akira Ito, a spokesman at the Kumamoto prefectural government, told AFP.

Nearly 1000 people have been hurt, 184 of them seriously, he added. Tokai University announced that two of its students, who were among around a dozen trapped in a dormitory building in Minami-Aso, were now known to have died.

“We offer our sincerest prayers for the two,” said a statement on its website. “We’re trying to confirm the safety of other students.” At least one of the dead was killed when a fire ripped through an apartment complex in the town of Yatsushiro, a local official said.

In nearby Kumamoto city, an AFP journalist said he was jolted awake by powerful shaking, which sent the television set in his hotel room crashing to the floor. Staff urged guests to evacuate.

Kumamoto airport was forced to close after a ceiling collapsed, Jiji Press reported, with no immediate plans to resume flights. Communications in the area were spotty.

By nightfall more than 100,000 households were still without electricity.

‘REALLY STRONG’

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said rain was expected to hit Kumamoto overnight and some areas would see heavy downpours on Sunday, raising the risk of further landslides in places where soil and rock has already been loosened.

Twitter user @kbbblove pleaded for help for “about 30 people” still trapped at a campsite.

“Please go rescue them before the rain and wind comes because it’s close to a mountain,” the user wrote.

An aerial view of a landslide in Mimami-Aso, Kumamoto prefecture. Picture: AFP/Japan’s Defence Ministry.Source:AFP

The town of Misato urged more than 10,000 people to evacuate Saturday for fear of a landslide, national broadcaster NHK reported.

The government is to send 25,000 troops and more than 1,000 emergency responders including firefighters and police to the stricken region.

“It has already started raining and the rain and winds are expected to get stronger,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at an emergency meeting in the evening.

“Night-time rescue missions will be very difficult but people are waiting,” he said.

The government is also preparing to provide enough food for all the evacuees for three days.

Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active countries, suffered a massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011 that sent a tsunami barrelling into its northeast coast.

Some 18,500 people were left dead or missing, and several nuclear reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

Houses are seen destroyed after an earthquake in Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan. Picture: Ryosuke Uematsu/Kyodo News.Source:AP

Aso Shrine is destroyed by an earthquake in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan. Picture: Kyodo News.Source:AP

Japan’s only working nuclear plant, southwest of Saturday’s epicentre, was unaffected by the quakes, the government has said.

Japanese media reported that nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity. Drinking water systems had also failed in the area. Hundreds of people were reported injured, although some of the injuries were minor.

Hundreds of people are bracing for rainfall and strong winds that may set off more devastating mudslides.

Local stores quickly ran out of stock and shuttered their doors Saturday, and people said they were worried about running out of food.

Parents cry as they confirm that their daughter was found dead after an earthquake in Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture. Picture: Ryota Tajiri/Kyodo News.Source:AP

One massive landslide from Japan’s deadly earthquakes tore open a mountainside in Minamiaso village in Kunamato Prefecture all the way from the top to a highway below, destroying a key bridge that could cut off food and other relief transport to the worst hit area.

A trail of brown earth streamed down the hillside like a muddy river.

Another landslide gnawed at a highway, collapsing a house that fell down a ravine and smashed at the bottom. In another part of the village, houses were left hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth.

MIRACLE SURVIVAL: Baby saved from Japan earthquake

Rescuers and their dogs patrol past collapsed houses in Mashiki, Kumamoto prefecture.Source:AFP

The epicentre of the quake was near the city of Kumamoto and measured at a shallow depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.

A series of aftershocks ensued, including a magnitude-5.4 this morning.

NHK reported at least 400 people treated in hospitals, but that figure included “people who don’t feel well”, so it was not clear how many serious injuries there were.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in an emergency news conference early today, said more than 300 calls came in to the Kumamoto police and another 100 to police in nearby Oita, seeking help and reporting people trapped or buried underneath debris.

He said 1600 soldiers joined rescue efforts. Extra troops would be sent to help, with up to 15,000 due today, as well as more police, firefighters and medics, he said.

“We are making every effort to respond,” Suga said.

Troops fanned out to search ruined houses as dawn broke.

Residents living near a dam were told to leave because of fears it might crumble, broadcaster NHK said.

Public broadcaster NHK TV showed stones tumbled from the walls of historic Kumamoto Castle, and a wooden structure in the complex was smashed.

At the Ark Hotel, east of the castle, hotel guests woke up to strong shaking and a warning siren. Hotel staff told guests, including tourists and journalists covering the quake, to evacuate their rooms and gather in the lobby for safety.

A severely damaged dentist office leans to one side following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Kumamoto, southern Japan. Picture: Koji Harada/Kyodo News.Source:AP

Items lie askew inside the Kyodo News Kumamoto bureau following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Kumamoto, southern Japan. Picture: Takuya Okamoto/Kyodo News.Source:AP

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, arriving at his office, told reporters the government was making every effort to determine the extent of the damage, carry out rescue and recovery, and to get accurate information to citizens.

“It’s possible that there may be damage over a wide area,” Abe said.

The region’s transport network suffered considerable damage with one tunnel caved in, a highway bridge damaged, roads blocked by landslips and train services halted, local media reported.

The stonewall of Kumamoto Castle is seen damaged after the earthquake in Kumamoto city, Japan. Picture: Kyodo News.Source:AP

Earlier NHK reported that waves of about one metre had reached the shore.

The broadcaster also showed aerial footage of a landslide in the village of Minami Aso where massive mud flows and huge rocks slid down a mountain into a valley, cutting off a highway and sweeping away houses and damaging buildings.

Meanwhile, a large fire that broke out at an apartment complex in Yatsushiro city killed one person, city official Kiichiro Terada said.

“We are also checking if any more people failed to escape,” he said, adding that the fire was under control.

In Minamiaso, a village in Kumamoto, rescuers were working to find about 20 people who were trapped after their homes collapsed, NHK reported.

Rescue workers in the village were also continuing to hunt for students, apparently from nearby Tokai University, who were trapped when their apartment collapsed.

Medical staff prepare to evacuate patients from the hospital in Kumamoto City over fears it could collapse as a wave of aftershocks shake the area.Source:AFP

Rescue workers said voices could be heard and reports said about 30 people appeared to be trapped, Japan Times reports.

Authorities were evacuating patients from a hospital in hard-hit Kumamoto city over fears it could collapse after a wave of aftershocks shook the area.

NHK said a bridge in Kumamoto city had collapsed, though that could not be immediately confirmed.

Footage showed rescuers in the nearby town of Mashiki carrying a victim on a stretcher from a collapsed house to an ambulance while they massaged the person’s chest.

Authorities warned that houses weakened by the quake could fall down, while footage showed a partially collapsed apartment building in Kumamoto.

A road newly damaged by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Mashiki, Kumamoto, Japan.Source:Getty Images

Hisako Ogata, 61, evacuated to a nearby park with her daughter, where some 50 other people sat on blue plastic sheets.

“We left my house as we could not stay due to continuous jolts,” Ogata told AFP.

“It was so scary,” she added.

“Thank God we are still alive.”

An AFP journalist in Kumamoto said he was jolted awake by powerful shaking, which sent the television set in his hotel room crashing to the floor. Staff urged guests to evacuate.

A 6.5-magnitude quake that struck late Thursday killed nine people and injured nearly 900.

Shotaro Sakamoto, a Kumamoto prefectural official, said today’s quake was of the same class in terms of the shaking felt on the ground.

“The latest earthquake felt as strong as, or stronger than the original one,” Sakamoto, told AFP.

“It was really strong ... Many people on the street appeared panicked.”

Drone footage has emerged showing the destruction of Thursday’s quake. See below.

Some 20,0000 soldiers will be deployed to the area over the weekend to help rescue efforts, Defence Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters.

The latest quake came as officials said they did not expect the death toll from Thursday’s quake to rise.

Japan, one of the most seismically active countries in the world, suffered a massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011 that sent a tsunami barrelling into the country’s northeast coast.

Some 18,500 people were left dead or missing, and several nuclear reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

A nuclear plant on Kyushu was unaffected by today’s quake, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the top government spokesman, told reporters.

Rescue workers take care of an elderly woman suffering from shock at the Mashiki Town Gymnasium evacuation centre.Source:Getty Images