The Office of Civil Defense said on Thursday morning that two people were killed and 18 injured in a landslide triggered by an earthquake in Magsaysay town, Davao del Sur province. Television network ABS-CBN reported two more deaths elsewhere, including a lady who was hit by a collapsed wall of a house.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Wednesday evening’s 6.3-magnitude earthquake occurred 22 km southeast of Tulunan in North Cotabato province at a comparatively shallow depth of 8 km. More than 200 aftershocks were recorded.
The US Geological Survey rated the quake a magnitude 6.4 with a depth of 14 km. Shallow earthquakes are likely to cause more damage than deeper ones.
The OCD reported that a minimum of 27 people were injured within the Magsaysay landslide or because of this of falling objects and collapsed concrete partitions.
Some areas lost power, including the Kidapawan city transport hub. Shortly after the earthquake, a hearth broke out on the Gaisano Shopping Center in General Santos City, but there have been no reports of anyone trapped.
Vice Mayor Joselito Pinol of M’lang town in North Cotabato said patients were evacuated from a hospital to make sure their safety throughout the quake. Several buildings were damaged, including Pinol’s office, where a glass facade collapsed.
Schools in quake-hit areas, including the president’s hometown of Davao, suspended classes Thursday so buildings could possibly be checked for damage. President Rodrigo Duterte was within the capital Manila when the quake struck.
“We felt a very strong jolt and lost consciousness. I saw people rushing down. We panicked, rushing to the exit,” said Naru Guarda Cabaddu, a hotel consultant visiting the town of Kidapawan, between the quake’s epicenter and Davao.
The community on the foot of the mountain needed to evacuate resulting from greater than 200 aftershocks.
“I was returning home when I felt very strong tremors. I stopped and saw people and patients running out of the hospital,” said Raprap Rafael, a resident of Kidapawan City.
The Philippines is considered one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, vulnerable to typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. It lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of faults across the Pacific Ocean where many of the world’s seismic activity occurs.
In 1990, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake killed nearly 2,000 people within the northern Philippines.
Additional information Reuters
This article was published within the print edition of the South China Morning Post newspaper under the title: Deadly earthquake hits southern provinces
