Powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake hits central Philippines, killing at least 69 people

A powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines late Tuesday, killing at least 69 people and injuring many others, officials have said. Efforts are currently underway by the government to search for survivors and restore power and water supplies.

At least 14 residents died and the hospital was overwhelmed in Bogo, a coastal city in the Cebu province with a population of about 90,000 people, which lies roughly 19 kilometres from the epicentre of the shallow quake. The death toll in the city is expected to rise, local authorities said.

Over a dozen people were also killed in Medellin near Bogo when they were hit by falling ceilings and walls of their houses, the town's disaster-mitigation office reported.

And in San Remigio, also near Bogo, five people were killed by collapsing walls when they were trying to flee a basketball game they were attending when the earthquake struck, the town's mayor Alfie Reynes told local media.

Reynes appealed for food and water, as San Remigio's water system was damaged by the tremors, as well as equipment for search and rescue efforts.

Pamela Baricuatro, the governor of Cebu, home to 3.4 million people and a popular tourist destination, said the extent of the damage and injuries in Bogo and outlying towns in the north of the province would not be known until daytime.

“It could be worse than we think,” he said in a video message on Facebook.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines in Cebu and in nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran, but the warning was lifted after no unusual waves had been monitored.

The earthquake comes less than a week after the area was battered by back-to-back storms, Bualoi and Ragasa. The Philippines is one of the world's most disaster-prone countries and is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.