Eight dead in Philippines after strong earthquake strikes north of Manila

At least eight people were killed when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck the Philippines’ main island of Luzon on Monday, and officials feared dozens could be trapped in the rubble of a collapsed commercial building.

The quake hit 60km (37 miles) northwest of the capital, Manila, disrupting air, rail and road transport and causing some damage to buildings and infrastructure. The international airport at Clark, a former US military base, was closed and more than 100 flights were cancelled after damage to parts of the facility, including check-in areas.

The province of Pampanga was worst hit. Eight people were killed and about 20 injured, provincial governor Lilia Pineda said by telephone, citing information from disaster officials.

Rescuers were using heavy duty equipment and search dogs to try to reach people trapped after a four-storey building went down, crushing the ground-floor supermarket, she said.

“They can be heard crying in pain,” she said of those trapped. “It won’t be easy to rescue them.”

The quake was initially reported as being of 6.3 magnitude and later revised down to 6.1 magnitude, the US Geological Survey and Philippines seismology authorities said.

The Philippines is prone to natural disasters, located in the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines that circles the edges of the Pacific Ocean. It is also hit by an average 20 typhoons a year, bringing heavy rains that trigger deadly landslides.

Large cracks appeared on provincial roads and electricity poles were felled.

Rescue teams in Manila were preparing to reinforce efforts to reach people trapped in Pampanga. The government urged people to be calm as rumours of greater death and destruction gained traction online.

“We urge them to refrain from spreading disinformation in social media that may cause undue alarm, panic and stress,” said a presidential spokesman, Salvador Panelo.

In Manila, the quake, shortly after 5pm, caused tall buildings to sway for several minutes in the main business districts.

Feliza Villanueva, 21, a business process outsourcing employee said she and four colleagues were at work when the quake struck.

“This was the second strongest quake I’ve felt in my entire life,” she said as she joined hundreds of others in the courtyard of an office building, waiting for the all clear. “We were worried but we did not panic. We planned how to evacuate the building.

“There were too many people going down the stairs, so we waited for our turn. People looked in shock, but no one was shouting or anything like that.”

Elevated rail services were halted and workers were evacuated from offices and condominiums, sending a flood of people onto pavements and into bus queues and adding more chaos to roads that are among the world’s most congested.

Mark Genesis Samodio, 23, a maintenance worker at a Makati condominium in the capital, said the quake’s impact was unusual, even for a city that has grown used to them.

“I was sitting down then it shook so strong I thought I was being rocked in a cradle,” he said.

The quake was centred on the town of Castillejos, about 100km (62 miles) northwest of Manila, local geologists said. Scientists from the US Geological Survey said its epicentre was 40km (25 miles) below the Earth’s surface.

Dani Justo, a martial arts instructor, said she was at her Manila home when the quake struck.

“The clothes hanging on our line were really swaying. My shih-tzu dropped flat on the ground,” she said of her dog.

Train lines in Metro Manila halted operations to assess any damage, the transport agency said.

Manila airport’s runway was also being inspected for damage. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Air cancelled flights to and from Clark, including flights to and from Hong Kong and Singapore.

The government’s civil defence units and disaster monitoring agency were still gathering data from different regions on the extent of any damage to people and property, spokesman Edgar Posadas said.

Aftershocks were still being felt in Metro Manila.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Bloomberg