The 25-year-old construction worker was buried by a collapsing building that was being worked on, civil protection said. The epicenter was in the town of Lagangilang in Abra province. The region is located in the north of the island of Luzon, 335 kilometers north of the capital Manila.
Five people were reportedly injured in landslides and rockfalls. There was no tsunami warning. The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Philippines (Phivolcs) put the quake, which occurred shortly before 9:00 a.m. (local time; 3:00 a.m. CEST) on Wednesday, initially at a magnitude of 7.3. The value was later revised to 7.
Numerous buildings and bridges were also damaged, said the mayor of Lagangilang. In some affected areas, power and radio signals failed. “We feel aftershocks every 15 minutes,” provincial vice governor Joy Bernos said on Philippine television.
Pacific Ring of Fire
Local Congressman Ching Bernos shared photos online showing houses half collapsed or tipped on their sides, as well as buildings with large cracks and broken glass windows. The tremors were felt as far away as the metropolis of Manila, where people were evacuated from homes and offices. Several high-rise towers were evacuated. The operation of the elevated railway in Greater Manila was also discontinued as a precaution.
The Philippines lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire – the most geologically active zone on earth. In 2013, 220 people were killed in the center of the Southeast Asian island state in the last violent earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1. In July 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 2,400 people on the island of Luzon.
Source: Nachrichten
