Taking no chances: Firefighters wearing protective suits as they respond to a chemical spill at the San Pedro College following the strong earthquake in Davao City. — AP
A powerful magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck off the southern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least six people dead and triggering regional tsunami warnings that were later lifted.
The quake hit about 20km off Manay in the Mindanao region at 9.43am, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Three miners tunnelling for gold were killed when their shaft collapsed in the mountains west of Manay, rescue official Kent Simeon of Pantukan town said. One miner was pulled out alive and several others were injured, he said.
In Mati city, the largest urban centre near the epicentre, one person was killed when a wall collapsed, while another suffered a fatal heart attack, local officials said.
A separate fatality was reported in Davao city, more than 100km west of the epicentre, a city government statement said without giving details.
Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning and ordered evacuations of coastal communities on the eastern seaboard deemed at risk from waves of up to three metres high, but only a 32cm wave was observed and the alert was later lifted.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also lifted its alert for the Philippines, Palau and Indonesia around noon, saying “there is no longer a tsunami threat from this earthquake”.
Off the shelves: A fireman looking at items scattered on the floor in a supermarket in Banaybanay, southern Philippines. — AP
Wes Caasi, a local official in Tagum city, northwest of Manay, said that a government event at the city hall was thrown into chaos as “the people panicked, they screamed and ran”.
Confirming videos that circulated on social media, Caasi said he saw city workers scrambling down a metal Christmas tree they were decorating when the quake struck.
Other witnesses said they saw students and workers pouring out of schools, office buildings and shopping malls.
Video clips verified by AFP also show people holding on to flower boxes or to each other while crouching low to avoid falling as the open ground rocked violently.
So far, the tremors seem to have caused minor and scattered damage, according to witnesses.
Dianne Lacorda, a police officer in Davao Oriental province, said power and communication lines had been severed and authorities were struggling to assess the damage in some areas.
The provincial government said on Facebook that it had suspended classes “until further notice” and had sent non-essential public workers home.
Christine Sierte, a teacher in the town of Compostela near Manay, said she was in the middle of an online meeting when the violent shaking started.
“It was very slow at first, then it got stronger ... That’s the longest time of my life. We weren’t able to walk out of the building immediately because the shaking was so strong,” she said.
“The ceilings of some offices fell, but luckily no one was injured,” she said.
Around the same time as the Philippine quake, USGS reported a shallow 6.2-magnitude tremor just over 140km southeast of Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Another quake struck on Tuesday near the Papua New Guinea’s second-largest city of Lae. No major damage was reported.
The latest Philippine quake struck 11 days after a 6.9-magnitude one killed 75, injured 1,271 others according to an updated official tally. — AFP
