6.8-magnitude earthquake strikes near Mindanao
MANILA: A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippines yesterday, officials said, damaging buildings and injuring two people as panicked residents fled the coast following a tsunami warning.
United States authorities warned of potential hazardous waves in the region of Mindanao as well as the southeast nation of Indonesia after the quake hit at 4.23am, but the tsunami alert was lifted less than two hours later.
Residents were jolted from their beds and ran onto the streets as the earthquake shook the area, leaving cracks in a hospital, two government buildings and a port, as well as triggering the collapse of at least a house and causing a power outage.
“The floor appeared to rise first before swaying violently from side to side.
“Then the lights went out,” said Adrian Morallas, who was at work at the civil defence office in General Santos city at the time of the quake.
Morallas said coastal communities near General Santos were told to evacuate as a precaution, though authorities do not know how many people actually left their homes.
The quake struck at a depth of 41km off Mindanao island, the US Geological Service said.
The state-run Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology gave a higher magnitude reading of 7.2.
“The epicentre was about 53km off Mindanao’s south coast, it added.
Morallas said two people were injured during the evacuations in the coastal towns of Glan and Malapatan.
One person was hit by a falling rock while a pregnant woman hurt herself when she fell. AFP