Earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes Philippines, 32 dead
Tsunami alerts issued in southern Philippines, northern Indonesia and the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island
Mindanao
The death toll from a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao rose to at least 32 on Monday, with dozens more injured, disaster officials said, as search and rescue operations intensified.
The quake struck early in the morning about 20 km (12.4 miles) off Sarangani province and triggered tsunami warnings across several countries. Tremors were felt strongly across Mindanao and as far as Manado in Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, 420 km (261 miles) away.
Philippine authorities, backed by military and disaster response teams, said they were verifying reports of 32 dead and 134 injured across Mindanao, mostly due to falling debris and landslides.
Tsunami warnings were later cancelled after more than six hours in the southern Philippines, northern Indonesia, and Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo, where coastal residents had been ordered to evacuate to higher ground.
The disaster struck eight months after the Philippines’ deadliest quake in 12 years, when a 6.9-magnitude tremor hit Cebu, killing 79 people. Two more strong quakes later struck Mindanao, the strongest measuring 7.4.
‘We will not leave Mindanao behind,’ president says
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered an immediate disaster response in Mindanao, an island the size of South Korea, with agencies directed to prepare relief supplies and evacuation centres and be ready for possible rescue operations.
“The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind,” he said in a statement.
It comes eight months after the Philippines suffered its deadliest remor in 12 years, when a shallow 6.9 magnitude quake hit off the island of Cebu, killing 79 people. Two powerful quakes struck Mindanao two weeks later, the strongest at a magnitude 7.4.
The Philippines and Indonesia experience hundreds of quakes each year and sit on tectonically complex parts of the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a seismically active belt stretching from South America to the Russian Far East.
