Aftershocks complicate recovery efforts from the earthquake, which killed 45 people and displaced thousands.

GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines – Dozens of rescuers wearing hard hats emerged from a partially collapsed grocery store in a southern Philippine city on Wednesday after it was rocked by an aftershock from a powerful earthquake that left at least 45 dead and 17 others missing in the area.

A safety officer blew his whistle and others shouted to warn about 30 firefighters and Coast Guard members to rush to safety as concrete debris crashed from the leaning three-story building in General Santos City in a frantic scene witnessed by an AP video journalist.

The coastal city, a busy commercial hub and the country’s tuna capital, was devastated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck on Monday and left a trail of devastation across southern Mindanao, the second-most populous region in the Philippines.

“It was a strong aftershock and an alarm was immediately sounded so those inside and below the damaged building could run to count the employees,” said Risa Mia Taktaquin-Betoya, who speaks on behalf of firefighters searching for the last missing employee at the destroyed grocery, where two upper floors collapsed during the initial quake.

“It was scary because we don’t want our rescuers to get hurt, so the area has to be secured before they can come back,” she told the Associated Press.

The quake was followed by more than 2,100 aftershocks, including a few as strong as 6.4, powerful enough to cause more casualties and damage, according to Teresito Paculcol, who heads the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

More than 25,000 people remain displaced, many of them staying in 45 government-run emergency shelters and still too traumatized to return home, officials said.

Monday’s earthquake was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Philippines in half a century. It injured at least 630 people and damaged more than 3,100 homes, 29 roads, 11 bridges and more than 100 government buildings.

The typhoon also damaged the international airport in General Santos, forcing it to close indefinitely except for government and military flights transporting aid and disaster response personnel, said Eric Apolonio, spokesman for the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority.

About 6,000 public school buildings in quake-affected provinces must be evaluated before classes resume. The quake occurred on the first day of school across the country after a two-month summer break, and many of those injured were young students who had enthusiastically gathered for the morning flag-raising ceremony.

Most of the deaths were caused by falling debris from collapsed buildings and landslides in General Santos and the nearby provinces of Sarangani, South Cotabato and West Davao.

At least one person died after being swept out to sea following the quake, with waves measured as high as 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) above tide level in the southern Philippines. Smaller waves washed ashore in Indonesia, Palau and as far away as southern Japan before tsunami warnings were lifted.

Seven swimmers were swept away by strong currents near General Santos in the minutes after the quake. The Philippine Coast Guard rescued three of them, one of whom was able to swim back to shore, another drowned and two are still missing, the Philippine Coast Guard said.

Bakulkul said the strong currents that swept away the victims were likely caused by the earthquake.

The quake was caused by movement in the Cotabato Trench and was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the country since an undersea depression triggered an 8.1-magnitude earthquake and triggered a tsunami on August 17, 1976, killing about 8,000 people.

The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

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Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Haruka Noga in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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