DAVAO (PHILIPPINES), June 8: An offshore earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit the southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 35 people, injuring more than 200 others mostly in ruined buildings and sending a 1-metre tsunami into nearby coasts.
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Several mostly low-rise buildings collapsed or sustained heavy damages in the hard-hit city of General Santos. Tsunami damage was reported in at least one southern coastal village. Smaller waves were measured in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.
The quake also triggered a landslide in Glan, a municipality in the province of Sarangani, that killed 13 villagers, Rene Punzalan, a provincial disaster-mitigation official, told the DZBB radio network. Four other villagers died in Sarangani, he said.
The major earthquake was the strongest to hit the Philippines this year, Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said. He warned people to seek advice before returning to damaged buildings and houses, which could collapse due to aftershocks.
The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said it was coordinating with Manila and was ready to support Philippine response efforts. France, Japan and New Zealand also expressed support.
“Our pickup truck suddenly jerked and I thought we had a flat tire,” Rod Sosmena, a regional director of the Office of Civil Defence, told The Associated Press from General Santos, where he was travelling when the quake struck at 7:37 am.
“The shaking was very strong and people dashed out of houses into the streets,” Sosmena said.
More than 100 students in uniforms and a dozen teachers had gathered for a flag-raising ceremony in a coconut tree-ringed grade school compound in the rural town of Malita in Davao Occidental province when the ground shook, turning the first day of school after a two-month summer break into chaos.
“Their excitement on the first day of school turned to trauma,” school principal Rosavel Cachuela told the AP.
Some of the young students screamed in panic and wept but most remained seated and still, preventing any injuries, Cachuela said, adding that a motorcycle was damaged when a shed crumbled to the ground.
At least four people remained missing in General Santos, a port city of more than 700,000 people and a regional hub for the tuna export industry.
Search and rescue teams worked to find people who may have been trapped in a supermarket, a warehouse, a grade school, and other small buildings that either collapsed or were severely damaged, officials said.
The international airport in General Santos was temporarily shut due to the earthquake and 17 domestic flights were cancelled, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.
The quake was centred at sea off Mindanao, the second most populous island in the Philippine archipelago. According to Bacolcol, the quake occurred at a depth of 33 kilometres, about 32 kilometres southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province. (PTI)
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