A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hits southern Philippines, killing 1, collapsing buildings, and triggering tsunami warnings across the region

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the southern Philippines on Monday killed at least one person and collapsed buildings, police said, as the disaster sparked tsunami warnings across the region.

The offshore quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometres (22 miles) about 24 kilometres west of Mindanao island’s Sarangani province, the United States Geological Survey said.

Videos posted to Facebook showed a shopping centre with a Jollibee fast food restaurant collapsing into rubble in the province’s General Santos City, while a building on a local school campus crumpled in another.

“Lord, it has really collapsed! It has really collapsed! The building has really collapsed!” someone can be heard shouting.

Master Sergeant Robert Dagon of the General Santos City police said that “a number of buildings collapsed”, including homes.

“Many buildings were affected, but I cannot enumerate them now because we are busy with ongoing rescues,” he told AFP, confirming at least one death and four injuries.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a notice that tsunami waves were possible “within the next three hours” along the coasts of the Philippines, Indonesia, Palau, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea.

Japanese authorities separately issued a tsunami advisory for swathes of its Pacific coast, projecting waves of up to one metre (three feet) to hit different regions from 11:30am local time (0230 GMT).

Indonesia ordered a tsunami evacuation of northern areas following the quake.

In Mindanao’s Davao City, a local disaster official said only that authorities were monitoring the situation and would post updates on social media.

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Eastern Mindanao was rocked by a pair of earthquakes of 7.4 and 6.7 magnitude in October that killed at least eight people.

These followed a magnitude 6.9 quake days earlier that killed 76 people and destroyed or damaged 72,000 houses in Cebu province in central Philippines, according to government figures.

 The Sun Malaysia