1 month ago
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Tsunami alerts have been issued after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Mindanao in the Philippines.
US, Indonesian and Philippine agencies all published warnings and told people to move inland or seek higher ground.
Experts said waves of up to three metres were possible in the Philippines, while Malaysia could see up to a metre. Smaller ones were also possible in Taiwan, Japan, Guam and Papua New Guinea.
So far however, the Philippines has only recorded waves of a metre.
There are some reports of some damaged buildings and President 'Bongbong' Marcos told people in the Philippines to immediately heed all warnings.
He said the government was in communication with local officials in Mindanao, the country's second largest island.
Phivolcs, the Philippine seismology agency, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) both measured the quake at magnitude 7.8.
It occurred at a depth at 20 miles (33km) at 7.37am, Phivolcs added, and a series of small aftershocks are still being felt.
"It's a major earthquake and we're expecting damages and we've already some damaged buildings based on videos we've seen," said Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol.
A police chief in one town in Mindanao's Sarangani province told Reuters news agency it was the "strongest earthquake we've experienced".
The disaster office for General Santos City disaster office said it was assessing reports of damage and some injuries.
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People in Indonesia's North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces also felt the earthquake but the country's disaster agency said there were no reports of damage so far.
Indonesia and the Philippines lie in the Pacific "ring of fire" - a string of underwater volcanoes and sites of increased seismic activity that stretches about 25,000 miles.
Both nations experience hundreds of earthquakes every year but today's tremor is the strongest this year.
English (US) · 