At least 69 people have been confirmed killed and almost 150 injured after a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of the central Philippine island province of Cebu, according to officials.

The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 9:59pm local time on Tuesday (13:59 GMT) off Cebu Island’s northern tip near Bogo, a city of some 90,000 residents, and was followed by four earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher in the area after the first tremor.

The new death toll confirmed on Wednesday is a sharp increase on the 26 people reported killed earlier by the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and is expected to rise further.

Rescuers scrambled to find survivors. Army troops, police and civilian volunteers backed by backhoes and sniffer dogs were deployed to carry out house-to-house searches for survivors.

“We’re still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a news briefing. “There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.”

Local authorities have declared a “state of calamity” in parts of Cebu, according to local news outlets.

The quake caused power outages and brought down buildings. Local television showed motorcycle riders being forced to dismount from their bikes and hold onto the railings as a Cebu bridge rocked violently.

The Cebu provincial government put out a call on its official Facebook page for medical volunteers to assist in the aftermath of the quake.

“We are still assessing the damage,” Pamela Baricuatro, the governor of Cebu, said in a video posted on social media.

“But it could be worse than we think,” Baricuatro said, adding that she has been in touch with the president’s office and is asking for aid.

Baricuatro later said that an unspecified number of houses and a hospital were damaged, and that emergency medical teams were being deployed to treat residents who were pinned down and injured.

“We’re sending already a trauma team there. Doctors and nurses are on the way,” the governor told the DZMM radio station. “We need medicine, food, medical teams.”

People rushed out of buildings and onto the street when the quake hit the central Philippines [AFP]
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology urged residents in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte and Biliran to stay away from the coast due to a “minor sea level disturbance”, and to “be on alert for unusual waves”.

(Al Jazeera)

Appeals for food and water

Alfie Reynes, the vice mayor of San Remigio town, which was badly hit by the quake, appealed for food and water for evacuees, as well as heavy equipment to aid search and rescue workers.

“It is raining heavily and there is no electricity, so we really need help, especially in the northern part, because there’s a scarcity of water after supply lines were damaged by the earthquake,” Reynes told DZMM radio.

Seven deaths were reported in San Remigio, including among personnel from the Bureau of Fire Protection and three from the coastguard, police said.

“The victims were playing basketball inside the sports complex when it collapsed,” said police captain Jan Ace Elcid Layug.

At least 13 people, four of them minors, were also reported killed in Bogo City, and two deaths were reported in the towns of Medellin and Tabuelan, provincial officials said.

The Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima, a church in Daanbantayan, a town in Cebu province, said the structure had partially collapsed. Power also went out in the town.

The Philippines lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire, where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common, and experiences near-daily earthquakes. A powerful magnitude 7 quake in July 2022 killed at least five people and injured 60.

In December 2023, another large earthquake shook the southern Philippines, killing at least one person and forcing thousands to evacuate.