BEIJING – China expresses mourning for lives lost and sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured in the earthquake that recently hit Japan's Kumamoto prefecture, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said here on Wednesday.

The ministry's spokesperson, Mao Ning, made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a related query, adding that China is closely monitoring the situation.

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck Kumamoto at 4:27 pm local time Tuesday (1927 GMT) at a depth of about 10 km, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.