MANILA: The death toll from a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the southern Philippines has increased to six and authorities are searching for two missing people, local disaster officials said on Saturday (Nov 18).
The offshore quake struck off Mindanao island on Friday afternoon at a depth of 60km, according to the German Research Center for Geosciences.
Videos posted on social media showed ceilings falling at two large malls as pillars swayed and people cowered and shouted in fear. The SM City General Santos mall and Robinsons GenSan mall announced temporary closures.
Photos also showed a collapsed roof at a school.
Agripino Dacera, disaster office chief of General Santos City in the province of South Cotabato, told Reuters that three people had been reported dead there. A man and his wife died when a concrete wall collapsed on them, while another woman was killed in a shopping mall, Dacera said.
Near the epicentre in Sarangani province, at least two people died, while rescuers are searching for two others missing after there was a landslide, Angel Dugaduga, a disaster response official in the coastal town of Glan, told Reuters.
Read the full article here
