Rescue efforts under way after quake off Cebu island sends people running into the streets, damages buildings.
At least five people have been killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of the central Philippines, sending people running into the streets and knocking power out in some areas.
Quoting local police, the AFP news agency and local media outlets said the five deaths were recorded in San Remigio, a town in the north of Cebu island.
Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list
The quake struck at sea late on Tuesday off the northern tip of Cebu and near Bogo, a city of more than 90,000 people, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
The institute urged residents in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte and Biliran to stay away from the coast due to a “minor sea level disturbance” and told them to “be on alert for unusual waves”.
The United States Geological Service also recorded four earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher in the area after the first tremor.
“We are still assessing the damage,” Pamela Baricuatro, the governor of Cebu, said in a video posted on social media.
“But it could be worse than we think,” Baricuatro said, adding that she has been in touch with the president’s office and is asking for aid.
People rushed out of buildings and onto streets when the quake hit the central Philippines [AFP]
Baricuatro later said an unspecified number of houses and a hospital were damaged and emergency medical teams were being deployed to treat residents who were pinned down and injured.
The extent of the damage and injuries would not be known until daytime, she said.
“We’re sending already a trauma team there. Doctors and nurses are on the way,” the governor told the DZMM radio network. ”We need medicine, food, medical teams.”
Meanwhile, the Cebu provincial government reported a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed while a number of village roads also sustained damage.
“There could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings,” provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos told AFP, adding that he didn’t know how many people were missing.
‘Shock and panic’
Cebu firefighter Joey Leeguid told AFP from the town of San Fernando that he felt the quake at his fire station.
“We saw our locker moving from left to right. We felt slightly dizzy for a while, but we are all fine now,” Leeguid said.
Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan near the epicentre, said he was at the town square near a church when the quake struck.
“I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church. Then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily, no one got hurt,” he told AFP.
“I was in shock and in panic at the same time, but my body couldn’t move. I was just there waiting for the shaking to stop.”
The Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima, a church in Daanbantayan, a town in Cebu province, said the structure had partially collapsed. Power also went out in Daanbantayan.
The Philippines experiences near-daily earthquakes, and a powerful magnitude 7 quake in July 2022 killed at least five people and injured 60.
In December 2023, another large earthquake shook the southern Philippines, killing at least one person and forcing thousands to evacuate.