7.8 Magnitude Quake In The Philippines Kills At Least 32, Collapses Buildings And Sparks Tsunami

DAVAO, Philippines (AP) – A 7.8-magnitude offshore earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 32 people, injuring more than 200, mostly in collapsed buildings, and sending a 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami onto nearby shores.

In the hard-hit city of General Santos, most low-rise buildings collapsed or were severely damaged. Tsunami damage was reported in at least one southern coastal village. Smaller waves were measured in Indonesia and Palau, and in remote areas as far south as Japan.

The earthquake also triggered a landslide in Glan, a municipality in Sarangani province, that killed 13 villagers, provincial disaster mitigation official Rene Punzalan told the DZBB radio network. He said four more villagers died in Sarangani.

Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said the massive earthquake was the strongest to hit the Philippines this year. He warned people to seek advice before returning to damaged buildings and homes that could collapse due to aftershocks.

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said it was coordinating with Manila and ready to support Philippine response efforts. France and New Zealand also expressed their support.

“Our truck suddenly shook and I thought we had a flat tire,” Rod Sosmeña, regional director of the Office of Civil Protection, told The Associated Press from General Santos, where he was traveling when the quake struck at 7:37 a.m.

“The shaking was very strong and people rushed out of the houses into the streets,” Sosmeña said.

As more than 100 students in uniform and a dozen teachers gathered for a flag-raising ceremony at an elementary school campus surrounded by coconut trees in the rural Malita town of Davao Occidental province, the ground shook and the first day of school after two months of summer vacation descended into chaos.

“Their excitement on the first day of school turned into trauma,” school principal Rosavel Cachuela told the AP.

Some of the young students screamed and cried in panic, but they mostly avoided any injuries by sitting and remaining still, Cachuela said, adding that a motorcycle was damaged when a shed collapsed.

At least 12 people remain missing in General Santos, a port city of more than 700,000 people and the regional hub of the tuna export industry. Search and rescue teams scrambled to find people who may have been trapped in a supermarket, a warehouse, an elementary school and other small buildings that collapsed or were severely damaged, authorities said.

The Philippine Civil Aviation Authority said the international airport in General Santos was temporarily closed due to the earthquake and 17 domestic flights were canceled.

The epicenter of the earthquake occurred off the coast of Mindanao, the second most populous island of the Philippine archipelago. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 33 kilometers (20 miles), about 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the town of Maasim in Sarangani province, according to Bacolcol.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He ordered the cancellation of classes and instructed disaster response agencies to immediately begin working in earthquake-affected provinces, saying “the national government is taking action and we will not leave Mindanao behind.”

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the tsunami threat was largely over about five hours after the quake. Philippine officials also lifted the tsunami warning in the afternoon. Six shacks on stilts were damaged in a coastal village in Zamboanga del Sur province due to the earthquake and high waves, officials said.

Most of the other deaths, along with the landslide in Sarangani, were caused by collapsed buildings and falling debris, including the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental and a damaged mosque on Balut Island, according to Sosmeña and Ednar Dayanghirang, another disaster mitigation official.

The DZRH radio network in Manila reported that the four-story commercial building housing the provincial station partially collapsed and staff were thrown to the ground floor without injury.

Waves of 1 meter (3 feet) were observed in Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces. A 1.4-meter (4.6-foot) wave suddenly hit the town of Kiamba, Bacolcol said.

The earthquake was also felt in the Sabah state on Malaysia’s Borneo island. Sabah is just a boat ride away from the southern Philippines. An 83-centimeter (2.7 feet) tsunami was measured off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and waves of 30 centimeters (1 foot) were measured in Palau, PTWC said.

Waves of up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) were detected on Japan’s remote island of Chichijima and the central Japanese town of Kushimoto, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The Philippines, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, is frequently exposed to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, which consists of seismic faults surrounding the ocean.

The archipelago is also the target of approximately 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and global executive producer Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this report.