Source:
https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3035699/philippines-rocked-third-strong-earthquake-month
Asia/ Southeast Asia

Philippines rocked by third strong earthquake in a month, killing at least 20 people

  • At least 30 people have died and a damaged hotel has buckled after a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines
  • The region is still recovering from a deadly quake on Tuesday, and another earlier this month
The damaged Eva's Hotel in Kidapawan, north Cotabato province, Philippines, after the third strong quake this month jolted the region. Photo: AP

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and sparking searches of seriously damaged buildings that had already been rattled by two previous deadly tremors this month.

The 6.5-magnitude quake hit the island of Mindanao, the US Geological Survey said, causing locals to run to safety in the same area where a strong tremor killed eight people on Tuesday. It was centred 10km deep near Kisante town, about 45km from Davao City.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who was in his hometown Davao City when the quake struck, is safe, his spokesman, Salvador Panelo, told ANC news channel. The powerful shaking caused serious damage to a condominium building in the city.

Rescuers look at a damaged condominium building in Davao City after the latest earthquake hit the region. Photo: AFP
Rescuers look at a damaged condominium building in Davao City after the latest earthquake hit the region. Photo: AFP

A village hall collapsed in Batasan village in Makilala town of hard-hit Cotabato province and the village leader was pinned to death, Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said.

Another man was pinned to death by a fallen tree and a woman died after being hit by heavy debris elsewhere in Makilala, government welfare officer Rosemarie Alcebar said. Two other villagers died due to quake-related injuries in Cotabato’s Arakan town but details of their deaths were not immediately available, Alcebar said.

In the city of Kidapawan, a hotel damaged in the earlier earthquakes further buckled and precariously leaned onto an adjacent hospital that had been emptied of people because it was damaged. Six staffers who were inside Eva’s Hotel managed to run out safely, Mayor Joseph Evangelista said.

Both buildings were cordoned off as they may collapse completely anytime.

“Everyone rushed outside,” said Reuel Limbungan, mayor of the Tulunan town, which was once again near the epicentre. “It was as strong as the previous one.”

USGS initially said the quake had a magnitude of 6.8, and added there was no threat of a tsunami.

Locals have been left terrified by a string of powerful quakes, and hundreds of aftershocks since the first powerful earthquake struck on October 16.

The residential condominium building damaged after a strong earthquake in Davao City. Photo: AP
The residential condominium building damaged after a strong earthquake in Davao City. Photo: AP

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Thursday’s quake could be considered an aftershock following the 6.6-magnitude quake that jolted central Mindanao on October 29.

Hundreds of families on Mindanao island, which makes up the southern third of the Philippines, have been living in shelters because they are afraid to go home.

The Philippines suffers regular tremors as part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In the quake on Tuesday, a teenage boy was crushed by a falling wall as he tried to escape his school in Magsaysay, the town spokesman said. Though others were injured in a “stampede” to escape the building, they survived.

Rock and landslides unleashed by the violent shaking killed four others, while a collapsed wall crushed a man, authorities said. At least 50 people were hurt by falling debris, including some seven pupils and teachers hurt escaping their collapsed junior school.

An injured person is treated after the latest earthquake in the Philippines. Photo: EPA-EFE
An injured person is treated after the latest earthquake in the Philippines. Photo: EPA-EFE

The area was still suffering the effects of a 6.4-magnitude quake that hit less than two weeks ago, killing at least five people and damaging dozens of buildings.

Residents fled homes across the Mindanao region and a mall caught fire in the city of General Santos soon after the quake struck on October 16.

One of the deadliest quakes to hit the Philippines recently was in April, when 16 people were killed as a building near the capital Manila collapsed and the secondary Clark airport was shut down due to damage to the passenger terminal.

High-rise structures in the capital swayed after the April quake, leaving some with large cracks in their walls.