A powerful night-time earthquake in the southern Philippines killed at least six people and injured more than 120, with officials combing through cracked buildings and nearby towns Saturday to check on the damage and other possible casualties.
The magnitude 6.7 quake roused residents from their sleep late Friday in Surigao del Norte province, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes. The quake was centered about 8 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Surigao at a relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, said Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology.
Nearly 100 aftershocks have been felt, officials said. Evacuation centers accommodated wary residents overnight, but many returned home Saturday, Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said, adding that officials were continuing to assess the damage in Surigao and outlying towns.
Mostly people who either lost their or were injured was as a result of being struck by falling debris and concrete Gilbert Gonzalez the provincial disaster response official said. Also the quake has forced the closure of the domestic airport due to cracks in its runway. Roads had visible cracks in the coastal city and a bridge collapsed in an outlying town, officials said.
The last major earthquake that struck Surigao, an impoverished region also dealing with a communist insurgency, was in the 1879, Solidum said. A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people on the northern island of Luzon in 1990.
The Philippines sits in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.
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