No tsunami warning has been issued yet. (Representative)
Philippines:
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook the central Philippines early Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, with the local seismological agency warning of aftershocks and possible damage.
A strong and shallow earthquake shook Masbate province in the center of the archipelago nation shortly after 2:00 a.m. local time (1800GMT), waking people.
The USGS said the quake’s epicenter was 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the nearest village of Miaga in the Uson municipality of Masbate, the province’s main island.
Shallow earthquakes cause more damage than deeper ones, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
No tsunami warning was issued.
“It was a bit strong,” Roly Albana, the police chief of Masbate province, told AFP.
“I was asleep when we were shaken and woke up.”
Albana said police had not reported any after-effects of the quake.
Usain Police Chief Capt. Raiden Toledo said some residents had fled their homes.
“Even I freaked out because of possible aftershocks,” Toledo said.
Gregorio Edig, a disaster official at Dimasang Municipality, said he felt a strong aftershock about an hour after the quake.
But there was no damage to buildings and other structures in the area, he said.
“Later we will visit the schools in each village and inspect their buildings,” Edig said.
The Masbate Education Department suspended classes for Thursday reportedly due to “continuing aftershocks being felt” in the province.
Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that extends from Japan into Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin.
Most are too weak to be felt by a human, but strong and devastating occur randomly, with no technology available to predict when and where it will occur.
The nation’s Office of Civil Defense regularly conducts exercises simulating earthquake scenarios along active fault lines.
The last major earthquake hit the northern Philippines in October.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous city of Dolores in Abra province, injuring several people, damaging buildings and cutting power to much of the area.
Last July, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake triggered landslides and cracks in the ground in Mount Abra, killing 11 people and injuring several hundred.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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