Death toll rises after Philippines struck by magnitude 7.8 earthquake

The death toll from a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of the Philippines yesterday has risen to 35, as rescuers continue to scour the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors.

More than 200 people have been injured, most of them caught in ruined buildings.

The highest-magnitude quake to hit the disaster-prone nation since 1990, it struck at 7.37am local time (9.37am AEST), about 13 kilometres off the coast of Mindanao’s main island, triggering a number of tsunamis up to 1.4 metres high across the southern Philippines, nearby Indonesia and Malaysia and even as far away as Japan.

Tsunami warnings were also issued for Christmas Island and part of the Northern Territory coastline, which have since been cancelled.

In the hard-hit Philippine city of General Santos – a coastal tuna export hub home to 700,000 people – numerous multi-storey buildings collapsed, 17 flights were grounded and power was lost.

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Aftershocks continued to rattle the Philippines hours after the main quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.7, causing further damage to already-weakened structures.

A major landslide was triggered 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.

Apart from the landslide, most of the deaths were caused by collapsing buildings and falling debris, including in a damaged mosque, in the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental, and on Balut Island, Rod Sosmena, a regional director of the Office of Civil Defence, told the Associated Press.

“The shaking was very strong and people dashed out of houses into the streets,” Sosmena said.

Assessing damage and casualties

At least 35 people were killed, mostly in collapsed buildings and landslides, and around 10,000 villagers have been displaced, the Office of Civil Defence said.

At least four people remained missing in General Santos.

Search and rescue teams are working to find people who may have been trapped in a supermarket, a warehouse, a primary school and other small buildings that either collapsed or were severely damaged, officials said.

Videos and images taken by locals showed buildings collapsing, including a clip of a Jollibee fast food restaurant in General Santos reduced to rubble as people screamed and raced to get out of the way of falling debris.

A number of multi-storey buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged, including a university and a two-storey building at a high school, and a key access bridge sustained dangerous cracks, Sosmena said.

Elsewhere, people were killed in the southern provinces of South Cotabato, in Davao Occidental province and on Balut Island.

Within six hours of the main shock, 138 aftershocks had already been felt in the Philippines, ranging in magnitude from 1.3 up to a strong 6.7, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered schools to close in all affected provinces and urged anyone in areas vulnerable to tsunami to immediately reach higher ground.

“Please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Marcos said.

“The national government is moving, and we will not leave Mindanao behind.”

The Mindanao island group is home to more than 27 million people, most of them living on the main island.

The earthquake struck on the first day of the new school year in the Philippines.

Footage posted on Facebook by a local school in the rural town of Malita, Deped Mahayahay Elementary School, shows children gathered outside during a flag ceremony when the ground began to rock.

More than 100 children screamed and covered their heads as the ground shook beneath them, before a small structure behind them collapsed and sent the students running.

The school reported that no students or staff were injured during the quake, although a motorbike was damaged by the falling structure.

In Manila, DZRH radio station reported that the small commercial building where its provincial branch was located had partly collapsed.

Workers there dashed to the ground floor but were not injured.

It was not clear if other people were trapped in the rubble of the four-storey office building due to the quake, which struck before office hours.

Debris also fell from other buildings, hitting tricycle taxis parked below, the Associated Press reported.

The Philippines is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

It is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

On October last year, a “double quake” struck southern Mindanao – a magnitude 7.4 shock followed just ten hours later by a 6.7 magnitude one – resulting in several deaths, minor tsunamis and crumbled buildings.