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AFP, GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines
Doctors yesterday treated patients in tents set up under a scorching Philippine sun — including helping a young mother give birth — as the death toll from a major earthquake that collapsed buildings topped 40.
Thousands remained displaced and more than 450 injured following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck off the southern island of Mindanao on Monday, with four people now believed missing, authorities said.
In hardest-hit Sarangani Province, some areas remain accessible only by helicopter while fears of aftershocks were slowing rescue efforts, local officials told reporters at a briefing yesterday.
Photo: AFP
“There are still aftershocks, so the rescuers are very cautious in their approach. That’s a challenge,” regional civil defense chief Rodrigo Sosmena said.
A series of powerful aftershocks rocked the area from about two hours after the first quake, while hundreds of tiny tremors followed.
Meanwhile, infrastructure damage means some communities would be cut off for at least a week because of the damage to roads and the collapse of a bridge.
At a hospital just outside General Santos, the region’s largest city, a mother gave birth outdoors behind a makeshift screen.
In Glan municipality, where at least 13 people were buried in their homes by a landslide, staff at another hospital said that more than 60 patients were on beds outside the facility due to fears for the building’s structural integrity.
“The hospital sustained a lot of damage,” she said. “The municipal engineer decided we could not use the building.”
As of yesterday afternoon, the death toll stood at 41.
