Philippines earthquake: Death toll rises to 60

CEBU ISLAND (Philippine): An estimated 60 people have been confirmed killed, with almost 150 injured after a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of the central Philippine island province of Cebu, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.

Citing the United States Geological Survey, Al Jazeera reported that the earthquake struck at 9:59pm local time on Tuesday (13:59 GMT) off Cebu Island’s northern tip near Bogo. The city is a home to about 90,000 residents. The earthquake was followed by four earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher in the area after the first tremor.

Quoting Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator of the Philippines Office of Civil Defence, Al Jazeera reported that he confirmed the new death toll on Wednesday, a steep increase on the 26 people reported killed earlier by the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
“We are receiving additional numbers of reported casualties so this thing is very fluid. We are receiving reports (that) as high as 60 individuals are reported to have perished in this earthquake,” Alejandro told reporters in Manila.

As per local news outlets, a “state of calamity” has been declared in parts of Cebu.

The powerful earthquake caused power outages and brought down buildings. The Cebu provincial government put out a call on its official Facebook page for medical volunteers to assist in the aftermath of the quake according to Al Jazeera. “We are still assessing the damage,” Pamela Baricuatro, the governor of Cebu, said in a video posted on social media. “But it could be worse than we think,”she said, adding that she has been in touch with the president’s office and is asking for aid.

Baricuatro later said that an unspecified number of houses and a hospital were damaged due to the earthquake and that emergency medical teams were being deployed to treat residents who were injured, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology residents in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte and Biliran were urged to stay away from the coast due to a “minor sea level disturbance”, and to “be on alert for unusual waves”. (ANI)