At least 93 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured by falling buildings islands popular with tourists in the central Philippines after an earthquake measuring 7.2 hit the region, according to radio reports.
A view of vehicles that were damaged by falling debris after an earthquake struck Cebu city Vehicles damaged by falling debris after the earthquake struck Cebu city.(Photo:Aljazeera)At least 93 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured by falling buildings islands popular with tourists in the central Philippines after an earthquake measuring 7.2 hit the region, according to radio reports.
Tuesday\’s earthquake was centred 56km deep below Carmen town on Bohol Island, about 400km southeast of the capital, Manila, and was felt across the region. The Philippine seismology agency reported at least 110 aftershocks.
Local radio stations also reported fatalities in nearby Cebu province, across a strait from Bohol.Tuesday is a national holiday and that may have reduced casualties because schools and offices are closed.
Al Jazeera\’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Siquijor Island, said school buildings had collapsed in Bohol and that the government was assessing the damage and sending out rescue teams from other outlying islands.
Bohol has 1.2 million people and is popular among foreigners because of its beach and island resorts.Philippine radio reports quoted an official from the national disaster agency as saying four people died on Bohol when buildings collapsed during the quake.
A 17th century stone church in Loboc, a town southwest of Carmen, crumbled to pieces, with nearly half of it reduced to rubble.Robert Poole, an arts journalist from Tokyo who was holidaying in Bohol, told Al Jazeera there were no casualties at the site possibly because of the national holiday.
"The mayor of the town has set up a command centre just in front of the collapsed chuch and people have gathered under temporarily set up white tents for them to go to and get information," he said.
Other old churches dating from the Spanish colonial period, which are common in the central region, reported damage too.Edgardo Chatto, Bohol\’s governor, said that a church was reported damaged in Tagbilaran and a part of the city hall collapsed, injuring one person.
Joseph Emilio Abaya, Philippine transportation secretary, said in a radio interview that parts of the Tagbilaran port had cracked and collapsed.
Cebu casualties Meanwhile, in Cebu among the casualties were four children, who were killed following a stampede, according to Dinky Soliman, the Philippine social welfare secretary.
Radio station DZMM quoted civil defence officials as saying that four people died when part of a fish port collapsed in Cebu.At least 19 were injured when the roof of a market in Mandaue collapsed, according to television reports.
At least two tall buildings collapsed and other buildings, including a church and former town hall, were damaged. Photos from Cebu broadcast on TV stations showed a fallen concrete two-storey building, and reports said two people were pulled alive, including an eight-month-old baby.
The Cebu city government office was also reportedly damaged. Cebu, about 570km south of Manila, has a population of more than 2.6 million people. Earthquakes are common in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Suorce:Aljazeera/Agency
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