Powerful earthquake in the Philippines leaves at least 32 feared dead
In General Santos City, the hardest-hit area and home to about 700,000 people, residents described a level of shaking they said surpassed anything they had known before.
A deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao has killed at least 32 people and injured dozens more, disaster officials said, as Manila intensified search-and-rescue efforts across the region.
The quake struck early in the morning about 20 km off the coast of Sarangani province, setting off tsunami warnings in several countries. Powerful tremors were felt across Mindanao and as far as Manado, 420 km away on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
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In General Santos City, the hardest-hit area and home to about 700,000 people, residents described a level of shaking they said surpassed anything they had known before.
“It was the first time I experienced something that strong, that I really couldn’t stop myself from tearing up. I thought about my children and my niece, what if something had happened to them?” said Jojo Calma, 44, who was driving his motorised tricycle taxi in front of a building when it collapsed.
Building collapse captured on video
Mr Calma said his children were at school when the earthquake hit and escaped unharmed, though his sibling’s house was destroyed. “Thank God they’re okay,” he said.
The quake came just as schools were reopening after a long break.
Watch: Roof gives way at Philippine school during earthquake
The Philippines deployed military and disaster response teams while authorities worked to confirm preliminary reports that 32 people were killed and 134 injured across Mindanao, most of them struck by falling debris or caught in landslides, civil defence officials said.
Tsunami warnings were lifted after more than six hours in the southern Philippines, northern Indonesia and Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo, where people living along the coast had been urged to move immediately to higher ground.
The disaster struck eight months after the Philippines endured its deadliest earthquake in 12 years, when a shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor hit off the central island of Cebu and left 79 people dead.
Two more powerful earthquakes jolted Mindanao two weeks later, the strongest measuring 7.4 magnitude.
‘We will not leave Mindanao behind,’ president says
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered an immediate disaster response in Mindanao, directing agencies to prepare relief goods and evacuation centres and to stand ready for possible rescue missions.
“The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” MrMarcos said in a statement.
The Philippines and Indonesia are hit by hundreds of earthquakes each year. Both lie along tectonically volatile stretches of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the vast seismic belt that arcs from South America to the Russian Far East.
Officials were still assessing damage to buildings, utilities and infrastructure in other affected provinces, but disaster officer Bong Dacera told a media briefing that structural inspections in General Santos could not yet begin because aftershocks were continuing.
‘No electricity or water’
The Philippine seismology agency said more than 200 aftershocks had followed, including at least nine that were strong enough to be felt across Mindanao. The largest reached magnitude 6.7.
Across General Santos, shops and other buildings were left battered — some with shattered glass and broken signs, others reduced to heaps of concrete and rubble.
One hospital was evacuated over fears of cracks on upper floors. A building at the city’s Notre Dame of Dadiangas University also collapsed, though no-one was inside.
Infographic map shows shaking intensity across Mindanao Island
Video shared by one school from the moment the earthquake struck showed a large group of children sitting on the floor as they swayed violently from side to side, some clinging to teachers, before running out together as a makeshift shelter crumpled behind them.
Benjie Ancheta, police chief of Alabel town in Sarangani, said the quake hit during a police flag-raising ceremony and caused some people to faint.
Residents on Indonesian islands head for higher ground
The US Tsunami Warning System said several countries could be affected, while Australia initially warned that tsunami waves could reach its northern coastline.
Japan’s meteorological agency issued an advisory and said a tsunami of 0.2 m or less had been observed, prompting some ferry disruption and precautionary beach closures.
Witnesses in Manado, Indonesia, said the shaking was strong.
Only limited damage was reported, according to Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency.
A tsunami with waves of up to 0.75 m was detected in parts of North Sulawesi, where residents began moving to safer ground, including people in the remote Sangihe Islands, among the Indonesian areas closest to the Philippines.
Earthquake also shakes Cuba’s capital, Havana
Meanwhile, a strong earthquake struck off western Cuba on Monday, with journalists in Havana describing 20 seconds of shaking that sent people rushing out of buildings and into the streets.
The US Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.1 magnitude and struck about 62 miles (100 kilometres) off the island’s western tip.
No injuries or major damage were reported.
