Strong 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off southern Philippines, tsunami warning issued

MANILA: An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck offshore in the southern Philippines on Friday, the country’s seismology agency said, with tsunami warnings issued in several countries and people in nearby coastal areas urged to evacuate to higher ground.

The Phivolcs agency warned of damage and aftershocks from the strong offshore quake, which struck in waters off Manay town in Davao Oriental in the Mindanao region. It said the quake happened at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).

The agency called on people in coastal towns in the central and southern Philippines to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move further inland, saying wave heights of up to more than one metre above normal tides could be expected.

A tsunami warning was also issued in Indonesia for its northern Sulawesi and Papua regions, warning of waves as high as 50 cm hitting Indonesia’s shorelines.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami threat, saying hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 km (186 miles) of the earthquake’s epicenter.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves of 1 to 3 metres above tide level were possible in the Philippines, and also said some coasts in Indonesia and Palau could see waves of up to 1 metre.

The governor of the southern Philippine province of Davao Oriental said people panicked when the earthquake struck.

“Some buildings were reported to have been damaged,” Edwin Jubahib told broadcaster DZMM. “It was very strong.”

Local authorities in the affected region in the Philippines could not immediately be reached.

The strong quake came two weeks after the Philippines experienced its deadliest quake, in more than a decade, with 72 people killed on the island of Cebu.

That was a magnitude of 6.9 and also struck offshore.

The Philippines sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences more than 800 quakes each year.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put the quake’s magnitude at 7.4 and its depth at 58 km (36 miles).