2 dead as quake hits central Philippines
MANILA: A 6.5-magnitude earthquake killed at least two people in the central Philippines yesterday, with more than five people still trapped inside a collapsed commercial building, officials said.
An 18-year-old woman died after being hit by falling debris in Ormoc City on Leyte island, near the epicentre of the quake, police said.
Elsewhere, rescuers pulled out eight survivors and one body from a collapsed three-storey structure in the town of Kananga, also on Leyte island, Kananga Vice-Mayor Elmer Codilla said.
“Eight have been rescued. All are in the hospital,” he said, declining to say if their injuries were serious.
Among those rescued were two people who sent SMS messages under the rubble, calling for help, he said.
“There are six or seven inside. Definitely more than five but less than 10,” he added.
Among those still trapped were two children who had been reached by rescuers but who could not be extricated from the rubble, Codilla said.
Dominico Petilla, the governor of Leyte province, said rescue personnel, ambulances and heavy equipment had been sent to the mountainous town of about 50,000 people.
“They’re trying to pull out the injured,” Petilla told local television.
The 10-year-old building housed a small hotel upstairs and shops on the ground floor, officials said.
The quake hit at a depth of around 6km, the United States Geological Survey said.
There was no warning of a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Large parts of Leyte were devastated by super typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Huge tsunami-like waves smashed the city of Tacloban and nearby areas, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.
Tacloban and Ormoc, the island’s other main city, largely escaped damage this time, residents contacted by telephone said.