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Staff writer, with Reuters
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan.
The system issued a purple alert indicating a “tsunami threat.”
The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau.
Photo courtesy of the US Geological Survey
Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris.
Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines’ Sarangani Province, said their evacuation was underway in coastal villages and there were no reported casualties so far.
The full extent of the damage was not yet clear and authorities said assessments were underway.
Video shared by the local government in General Santos, a city of about 700,000 people, showed the collapse of a building housing a fast food restaurant, with panicked onlookers fleeing as a cloud of dust spread quickly through the air.
One General Santos hospital was evacuated due to concerns about cracks on higher floors, while one of the buildings at the city’s Notre Dame of Dadiangas University collapsed, but no one was inside.
The quake struck at a depth of 10km, said the German Research Centre for Geosciences, which had earlier pegged the earthquake at magnitude 8.2.
Phivolcs, the Philippine agency, said the quake was magnitude 7 and warned of damage and tsunami waves above 1m, which could continue for several hours.
Indonesia’s BMKG put the quake at a 7.7 magnitude.
The Central Weather Administration said it would closely monitor the subsequent impact of the quake and provide the latest updates as they become available.
