The death toll from a massive earthquake off the southern Philippines has grown to nine, according to the national disaster service, which warned that the toll could rise higher.
When a 6.7-magnitude earthquake slammed the Mindanao region on Friday, buildings shook and part of a ceiling inside a shopping center collapsed, people rushed into the streets or sheltered under tables.
According to the most recent update from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, at least 15 individuals were injured and over 800 homes were damaged or destroyed.
This handout photo, received on November 17, 2023 from Shaira Ann Sandigan-Rodrigo’s Facebook page, shows a damaged ceiling of a shopping center in General Santos City, South Cotabato, following a severe magnitude 6.7 earthquake that hit the southern Philippines.
Over the weekend, the death toll rapidly increased as searchers discovered additional remains trapped beneath rubble or soil.
Although search and rescue activities have largely concluded, the disaster agency stated that it is still collecting data from some of the dozens of villages hit by the earthquake.
“I’m hoping to God that our death toll won’t go up anymore, but we’re still waiting for the information coming from the regions,” deputy spokesman Mark Timbal told AFP.
This handout photo obtained on November 17, 2023 from the facebook page of Justin Kyle T. Imperial, shows a landslide in Malapatan in Sarangani Province after a strong magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the southern Philippines.
The state seismology service said the quake was likely generated by the movement of the earth’s crust along the Cotabato trench, a long, narrow depression on the seafloor that forms the boundary of one tectonic plate pushing against another.
Quakes are frequent in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Most are too weak to be felt by humans.
AFP