7.1 magnitude earthquake hits northern Philippines

India Today:-

A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Philippine island of Luzon on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, badly damaging a hospital and buildings in a northern province and sending strong tremors through the capital, Manila.

A hospital in Abra province was evacuated after the building partially collapsed following the quake, but there were no casualties reported, said officials.

“We are still experiencing aftershocks. We have received reports of damage to houses. But so far no casualties,” said Mayor Rovelyn Villamor in the town of Lagangilang in Abra province.

“We don’t have power supply because that’s automatically cut off due to danger,” Villamor told DZRH radio.

The public information office of Abra province posted photographs on its Facebook page showing buildings badly damaged, with walls with huge cracks crumbling.

USGS said the earthquake’s epicentre was about 11 km (six miles) east-southeast of the town of Dolores and occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 miles).