A powerful offshore earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 16 people, injuring more than 200 others, and sending a one-metre tsunami into nearby coasts.
Several buildings collapsed and key infrastructure sustained damage in the city of General Santos, a port city of more than 700,000 people that serves as a hub for the tuna export industry. Tsunami damage was reported in at least one coastal village, and smaller waves were measured in Indonesia, Palau, and as far away as southern Japan.
“It’s a major earthquake and we’re expecting damage,” Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told The Associated Press.
The strongest quake to hit the Philippines this year was centred at sea off Mindanao island at a depth of 33 kilometres, about 32 kilometres southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province.
At least seven people were killed and about 130 others injured in General Santos, where a few small buildings partially collapsed and several structures, including a key access bridge, sustained dangerous cracks. Nine other people were killed mostly due to falling debris, a damaged mosque and a landslide in the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental and on Balut Island.
Authorities were checking reports of some students being trapped in a two-storey school that collapsed in General Santos. The national police said at least seven people were missing in the city.
Waves of one metre were generally monitored in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani. A 1.4-metre wave was monitored at one time in the coastal area of Kiamba town in Sarangani. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the threat of a tsunami largely passed about five hours after the quake.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said “the national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind.”
The international airport in General Santos was temporarily shut, and 17 domestic flights were cancelled. Aftershocks as strong as 6.5 magnitude were recorded.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, 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. The archipelago is also hit by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.
