An earthquake hits the North Island of the Philippines, killing at least 4 and injuring dozens

A powerful earthquake triggered landslides and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens. In the capital, hospital patients were evacuated and panicked people rushed into the fresh air.

Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said the 7.0-magnitude quake was centered in the heavily stricken Abra province in a mountainous area, describing the mid-morning quake as a major one.

Michael Bryants, a security officer in the town of Abra and Lagangelang, near the epicenter, told The Associated Press by phone.

“It was the strongest earthquake I’ve ever felt and I thought the Earth would open up.”

In this bulletin provided by the Philippine Red Cross, a vehicle was damaged by a wall collapse after a strong earthquake hit Ilocos Sur province, the Philippines, on Wednesday. (Philippine Red Cross/Associated Press)

At least four people were killed, mostly in collapsed buildings, including a villager who was hit by falling cement slabs at his home in Abra, where at least 25 others were injured. In Benguet County, a worker was killed after a small building under construction in the strawberry-growing mountain town of La Trinidad collapsed.

Several homes and buildings were cracked in the walls, including some that collapsed in Abra, where new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office less than a month ago, planned to travel to meet victims and local officials.

Marcos Jr. said at a press conference that he was in his office at the riverside complex of the Malacanang Presidential Palace in Manila when the chandeliers started swaying and rattling, chandeliers swaying and the palace grounds shaking. “It was very strong,” he said of the shaking of the earth.

In a chilling near-death experience, Filipino photojournalist Harley Palangshao and his companions were traveling down a slope in two pickup trucks in Mountain County when they suddenly heard a thunder-like thunder and saw an avalanche of boulders as large as cars raining right in front of them from the towering. mountain.

Rocks fall as a vehicle negotiates a road during an earthquake in Bauko, Mountain Province, Philippines, on Wednesday. (Harley Balangshao/The Associated Press)

Amid the cries of his truck buddies, “Back up, back up!” The 44-year-old raised his camera in the front seat and snapped what he feared might be the final photos of his life. The truck in front of them was scratched by a boulder, injuring one, but he and others in the second truck traveled back fast enough and escaped unscathed.

“I was thinking there must be at least a record if something happens to us,” Palangshao told The Associated Press. “It was a terrible experience.”

The Red Cross released a photo of a small three-story building leaning precariously toward a road covered in debris in Abra. A video taken by a terrified witness showed parts of an old church stone tower being peeled off, then falling into a cloud of dust on top of a hill.

Rescuers walk through the rubble after the earthquake caused damage in Vigan, Ilocos Sur province in the northern Philippines. (Bureau of Fire Protection/The Associated Press)

Patients, some in wheelchairs, and medical personnel were evacuated from at least two hospitals in Manila, about 300 kilometers south of Lagangelang, but were later asked to return after engineers discovered some minor cracks in the walls.

ring of fire

The strength of the earthquake was reduced from the initial 7.3 degrees after further analysis. The institute said that the quake was caused by movement in a local fault at a depth of 25 km, indicating that it expected damage and more aftershocks.

The US Geological Survey measured the earthquake’s strength at 7.0 and a depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. It is also hit by about 20 hurricanes and tropical storms each year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.

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