Deadly 6.9 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Central Philippines: 19 Confirmed Dead in Cebu Island

People gather outside their office after earthquake tremors at Cebu in central Philippines, Tuesday.

Manila:

A powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines, causing building collapses and claiming at least 19 lives on Cebu island, authorities confirmed early Wednesday. The death toll may increase as rescue teams continue searching for survivors.

The shallow earthquake occurred at 9:50 pm (1359 GMT) Tuesday near Bogo, a city with 90,000 residents at the northern end of the island, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Rescue teams reported that nine adults and four children died in Bogo, including three victims whose homes were engulfed by landslides. Five additional fatalities were confirmed by police in nearby San Remigio municipality, with one death reported in Tabuelan.

In San Remigio, four bodies were recovered from a sports center, including three coastguard members participating in a local basketball tournament when the roof collapsed. A child was fatally crushed by debris in another area of the municipality.

The Cebu provincial government has issued an urgent appeal for medical volunteers on its official Facebook page to assist with earthquake response efforts.

"There could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings," provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos told AFP, noting ongoing rescue operations in San Remigio and Bogo. The number of missing persons remains unknown.

Overnight recovery work faced challenges due to darkness and continuous aftershocks. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported 379 aftershocks affecting the region as rescue efforts continued through the night.

Several village roads sustained significant damage from the earthquake. The tremor caused power outages across Cebu and neighboring central islands after disrupting power lines, though electricity was restored shortly after midnight in Cebu and four other major central islands, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

Cebu firefighter Joey Leeguid reported from San Fernando town: "We felt the shake here in our station, it was so strong. We saw our locker moving from left to right, we felt slightly dizzy for a while but we are all fine now."

Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan near the epicenter, described being at the town square near a church damaged by the quake. "I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily no one got hurt," he told AFP.

"I was in shock and in panic at the same time but my body couldn't move, I was just there waiting for the shake to stop."

Agnes Merza, a 65-year-old carer in Bantayan, said her kitchen tiles had cracked during the earthquake. "It felt as though we would all fall down. It's the first time I have experienced it. The neighbours all ran out of their homes. My two teenage assistants hid under a table because that's what they were taught in the boy scouts."

The Cebu provincial government reported that a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed, while a fast food restaurant in Bogo sustained severe damage.

In a live video message on her official Facebook account, Cebu provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro urged residents to "stay calm and move to open areas; keep away from walls or structures that may collapse and stay alert for aftershocks."

The USGS initially reported a 7.0 magnitude reading before revising it downward. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center confirmed there was no tsunami threat from this earthquake.

Earthquakes occur almost daily in the Philippines, which sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most earthquakes are too weak to be felt by humans, but powerful and destructive ones occur randomly, with no technology currently available to predict their timing or location.