LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — A moderately strong earthquake cracked buildings and knocked televisions and glassware from tables Tuesday in Masbate, injuring at least 10 people and sending others rushing outside in panic, officials said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded the earthquake at 7:06 a.m. and its epicenter located around three kilometers north of the island of Masbate.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said the quake was at 12.40 degrees north (latitude) and 123.63 degrees east (longitude) with a depth of 23 kilometers.
The quake, which was of tectonic origin, was felt at intensity 6 in Masbate, intensity 4 at Irosin and Sorsogon City, and 2 in Legazpi.
At least 10 people were slightly injured by falling objects and collapsing walls in the hillside city of 90,000 people, officials said.
The three-story, 10-room MC Hospital on Rocero Street in the city sustained cracks and was undergoing inspection by city engineers, Masbate City Mayor Socrates Tuason said, adding that another four-story building in the city, the Manalo Bldg., also sustained cracks.
The quake shattered glass windows in houses and other buildings, at least two of which were cleared of people and cordoned off by police while government engineers checked their stability.
Ernie Delgado, provincial chief of the Philippine Information Agency in Masbate, said the quake sent people rushing out of their homes and buildings.
He added that two aftershocks were felt, slightly shaking trees and poles. Classes at all levels in public and private schools in the province were suspended.
The Albay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the earthquake event was only slightly felt in Albay. No damage to public and private infrastructure was reported.
Several restaurants, shops and banks also had visible cracks and did not open Tuesday, officials said.
“I was having breakfast with my wife when everything started to shake. The TV set and glasses fell off the table,” Tuason said. “When I got out, I saw all the people in the community were on the streets.”
Disaster-response and first aid teams were deployed across the city, Tuason said.
Classes in all schools were suspended as buildings were checked for damage, he said, adding that he had called an emergency meeting to deal with any contingency.
Officials of Masbate, about 350 kilometers southeast of Manila, led earthquake drills in schools and offices just last week after a magnitude-6.9 quake left 58 people dead, 60 others missing and displaced more than 200,000 on nearby Negros island on February 6.
Leo Jasareno, who heads a government agency that produces hazard maps for communities, said Tuesday’s earthquake should serve as the latest warning for thousands of people to stop ignoring advice to immediately evacuate from more than 7,000 mountain villages nationwide that are prone to landslides set off by earthquakes or storms.
Several residential areas also dangerously sit on and near active fault zones, including in metropolitan Manila, but people have ignored the risks, officials said.
The Philippines is in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. The damage and casualties are compounded by poor construction in violation of building codes in the impoverished nation.
In 1990, a magnitude-7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in northern Luzon region.