'I thought I would die': Survivors describe the shock and horror of Japan's devastating earthquake

'I thought I would die': Survivors describe the shock and horror of Japan's devastating earthquakeByChie KobayashiReporting fromTokyoPublished5 minutes agoByGavin ButlerImage source, ReutersImage caption, The ramifications of the earthquake have been widely feltBusiness was winding down for the day at Sendan Shokudo, a diner in Japan's southwestern city of Yatsushiro, when the whole building suddenly lurched. Everything on the kitchen shelves cascaded to the floor; bowls and glasses shattered.The restaurant's co-owner, 75-year-old Hiroko Ogata, had just walked in."I was surprised, and scared," she told BBC News. "I went under one of the tables right away, but the table moved sharply towards the right, left, right, left, with me."Ogata has lived in Yatsushiro, in central Kumamoto prefecture, her whole life. The area is located on an active tectonic fault system and no stranger to tremors - in 2016, a pair of earthquakes struck, killing 277 people and injuring 2,800 others.But Ogata has "never experienced this big of a jolt"."The last quake 10 years ago was nothing like this one," she said. "I thought I would die."At least 13 people have been killed in the wake of the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Kumamoto late on Tuesday. Three of them are from the Aeon shopping mall in Kumamoto city, where dozens are still believed to be trapped. Rescue efforts are underway, but Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has warned that emergency services are in a "race against time".'Big jolts came one after another'Just a few hundred metres away from the Aeon mall, Yui* was sitting in the back office of her cake shop when the quake hit."I couldn't tell which was the sound of the earthquake and which was the sound of the explosion," she told the BBC."All I could do was hold the chair I was sitting in as big jolts came one after another," she added, appearing to still be in...