Following the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu region in Japan on Thursday (April 14), a second powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 has been reported in the same area on Saturday (April 16), at 1.25 am local time.

The Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra), in a statement here, however, said no Malaysians were reported hurt.

It said out of 18 Malaysian students who were involved in these incidents, 11 of them had already arrived in Fukuoka while the other seven are still in evacuation centres and waiting for further instructions from the local authorities.

They are students of Kumamoto University, National College of Technology Kumamoto and Ariake National College of Technology.

Wisma Putra and the Embassy of Malaysia in Tokyo will continue to monitor the situation and provide an update as and when it is made available, the statement added.

According to the statement, the first earthquake killed nine people while the second left 23 people dead, bringing the number of casualties so far to 32 people.

A total of 70,000 people had been evacuated to evacuation centres on the orders of the authorities and 200,000 homes were reported without electricity, it said.

The statement added that the Japanese government had announced it will send a total of 20,000 self-defense troops and 5,500 policemen, rescue workers and firefighters to Kumamoto district by Sunday (April 17) to help the victims.