At least 31 dead as powerful 6.9-magnitude quake hits Philippines

The epicentre of the earthquake, which was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 5km (3 miles), was about 19km (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province, where at least 14 residents died, disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot said by telephone.

The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise. Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, he said.

“It’s hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer, said, adding some survivors were brought to a hospital.

At least 12 residents, mostly belonging to small families, died when they were hit by falling ceilings and walls of their houses, some while sleeping, in Medellin town near Bogo, said Gemma Villamor, who heads the town’s disaster-mitigation office.

In San Remigio town, also near Bogo, five people, consisting of three coastguard personnel, a firefighter and a child, were killed separately by collapsing walls while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game that was disrupted by the quake, the town’s vice mayor, Alfie Reynes, told the DZMM radio network.