At least one person was killed and 43 injured when a large 6.6 earthquake shook the central Philippines, damaged buildings and roads and sent residents out of their homes.
The shallow earthquake struck on Tuesday southeast of Masbate Island in the Bicol region at 8:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
“There are a lot of damaged houses,” said Staff Sergeant Antonio Clemente in Cataingan, a town of about 50,000 people on the poor island several miles west of the epicenter in Samarsee. “It was really strong.”
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, the quake affected about five kilometers (three miles) of Cataingan to a depth of about 21 kilometers (13 miles).
Local radio reporter Christopher Decamon said he saw emergency workers pull the body of a retired police officer out of the rubble of a three-story house on the outskirts of Cataingan. The man’s wife escaped unharmed.
Police confirmed the man’s death. Sixteen people were also injured in the city.
The quake “was really strong, our people were sending out at the time, but they just ran out of the building,” Decamon told AFP by phone.
In nearby Palanas, at least 27 people were injured after being hit by falling objects or when their motorcycles collided, Chris Adique, a municipal disaster officer, told DZBB radio.
Search and rescue efforts were still underway in the region.
Photo posted by Jake Gabilan’s Facebook page shows residents walking on the ground behind punctures after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake near the city of Cataingan in the central Philippine province of Masbate [Courtesy of Jake Gabilan/AFP]
Great damage remains to be seen
The quake struck as the archipelago battled growing numbers of coronavirus infections, with more than 164,000 cases and movement restrictions varying across the country.
A lockdown affecting a quarter of the population, including the capital Manila, will be lifted on Wednesday.
“We have spoken to several officials on the ground who say rescue operations in Cataingan are well under way,” said Jamila Alindogan of Al Jazeera, reporting from the capital Manila.
“Officials have increased the warning to four volcanoes in many parts of the southern and central parts of Luzon, where it remains to be seen whether the effect of these volcanoes is in direct relation to the earthquake,” she added.
To date, the Philippine Seismology Office has recorded at least 24 aftershocks, with the strongest recorded at a size of 3.8.
A member of the Red Cross inspects a cracked road damaged by the earthquake that hit Uson city in Masbate province [Philippine National Red Cross/AFP]
A video posted on Facebook and verified by AFP showed light damage to a food market in Cataingan.
Clothed buckets and small fish were scattered on the ground, and pieces of cement fell from a pillar. People were standing outside on the street.
Philippine Red Cross President Richard Gordon tweeted photos taken by his colleagues showing buildings in Cataingan falling with corrugated iron roofs.
Other photos taken near Uson City show a sealed road with a large crack there.
The Philippines lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
It is also hit every year by about 20 typhoons and storms, making it one of the most rural disaster plans in the world.
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook the southern island of Mindanao in December, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and damaging buildings.
It hit when the island recovered in October from a string of deadly shakes.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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