Powerful earthquake hits northern Philippines
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday, authorities said, killing one person, shattering windows at the epicentre and shaking high-rise towers more than 300km away in the capital Manila. The shallow but powerful quake struck the province of Abra on the main island of Luzon at 8.43am local time, the US Geological Survey said. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones. A 25-year-old construction worker in La Trinidad, the capital of the landlocked province Benguet, died when the three-storey building he was working on collapsed, police said. Seven other workers escaped unharmed. In the municipality of Dolores in Abra, which felt the full force of the quake, terrified people ran outside their homes and shops, and the local market's windows were broken, Police Major Edwin Sergio said. "The quake was very strong," Sergio said, adding there were small cracks in the police station building. "Vegetables and fruits sold in the market were also disarranged after tables were toppled." A video posted on Facebook showed cracks in the asphalt road and ground in the nearby provincial capital of Bangued, though there was no visible damage to houses or stores. But a number of injured people in Bangued were taken to hospital, police chief Major Nazareno Emia said. "Some of the buildings here show cracks. Power was cut off and internet as well," he added. Congressman Ching Bernos, who represents the lone district of Abra, said the quake "caused damages to many households and establishments", but did not elaborate. University student Mira Zapata was in her house in San Juan municipality when she felt "really strong shaking". "We started shouting and rushed outside," she said, as aftershocks continued. "Our house is ok but houses down the hill were damaged." RTHK's Manila correspondent Alan Robles said the rocky and mountainous region where the quake struck is lightly populated, and that the Philippines had in a sense "dodged a bullet". "If that had taken place right in the heart of Manila for instance, that would've cause lots of damage and very high casualties," he said. "So we were lucky in dodging a bullet in the sense it took place in the sparsely populated north." The Philippines is regularly rocked by quakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin. Wednesday's quake was the strongest recorded in the Philippines in years. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whose family stronghold is in the north, was expected to visit the affected region as soon as it was safe, his press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said. (AFP)______________________________
Last updated: 2022-07-27 HKT 17:45 