MANILA: The death toll from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck off the central Philippines late on Tuesday (Sep 30) has risen to 72, the civil defence agency said.
Another 294 people were injured, the agency said in a report on Thursday. The latest death toll was an increase of three from Wednesday and all fatalities were recorded in the central Visayas region.
The Cebu quake was the country’s deadliest since at least 2013, when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the neighbouring island of Bohol, killing 222 people.
The shallow quake struck waters off the central island of Cebu late at night, damaging power lines, bridges and multiple buildings, including a church that was more than 100 years old.
There was no immediate figure on Wednesday for the number of people still missing. Sporadic rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to save lives, officials said.
Earthquake monitoring agencies put the quake’s depth at around 10km and recorded multiple aftershocks, the strongest with a magnitude of 6. There was no tsunami threat.
Videos posted by local media showed people rushing out of their homes on Cebu, a 200km-long island of 3.4 million people, as the ground shook and buildings collapsed. Huge cracks opened in roads and motorcyclists scrambled to safety on the rails of a bridge that shook rapidly from side to side.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assured survivors of swift assistance.
“We are assessing the damage, we are assessing the needs,” he told reporters.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences more than 800 quakes each year.
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