More than a dozen people are dead, and hundreds are injured after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines. The quake hit just after 7:30 a.m. Monday, local time, in the Mindanao region and was the strongest to strike the country this year.
The Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense says at least 19 people were killed. Many were caught in collapsed buildings, but officials say the quake also triggered a landslide that killed 13 villagers.
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Other deaths were caused by falling debris and a damaged mosque, and thousands of residents have been displaced from their homes.
Lasting damage
Buildings were damaged across the area, and authorities say key roads, bridges and other infrastructure in and around General Santos City suffered significant damage.
The port city of more than 700,000 people was among the hardest hit, officials say.
The earthquake also triggered a tsunami up to three feet high, damaging at least one coastal village. Smaller waves were detected in Indonesia, Palau and as far away as southern Japan.
The quake struck just as students were returning to class for the start of the new school year.
One video posted to social media shows children crouching outdoors as the ground shakes beneath them.
In another incident, the roof of a high school building collapsed while students were gathered outside on the school’s sports field.
No injuries were reported.
Authorities are also checking reports of students being trapped in a two-story school that collapsed in General Santos. The Associated Press reports that at least 12 people are missing.
Earthquake data and aftershocks
The U.S. Geological Survey says the original quake was 34 miles deep and that recorded aftershocks were as strong as magnitude 6.5.
Earthquakes in the Philippines are not uncommon, as the country is one of the world’s most disaster-prone, the AP reports. This is due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic fault lines around the ocean.
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