MANILA, PHILIPPINES (AP) – A strong earthquake set off landslides and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines yesterday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens. In the capital, hospital patients were evacuated and terrified people rushed outdoors.
The 7-magnitude quake was centred in a mountainous area of Abra province, said head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Renato Solidum, who described the midmorning shaking as a major earthquake.
“The ground shook like I was on a swing and the lights suddenly went out. We rushed out of the office, and I heard screams and some of my companions were in tears,” said Michael Brillantes, a safety officer of the Abra town of Lagangilang, near the epicentre.
“It was the most powerful quake I’ve felt and I thought the ground would open up,” Brillantes told The Associated Press by cellphone.
At least four people died mostly in collapsed structures, including a villager hit by falling cement slabs in his house in Abra, where at least 25 others were injured. In Benguet province, a worker was pinned to death after a building that was under construction collapsed in the strawberry-growing mountain town of La Trinidad.
Many houses and buildings had cracked walls, including some that collapsed in Abra, where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who took office less than a month ago, planned to travel today to meet victims and local officials.
Marcos Jr told a news conference he was in his office at the riverside Malacanang presidential palace complex when the chandeliers began swaying and making clanking sounds. “It was very strong,” he said of the ground shaking.
