Philippines Earthquake: Rescuers Desperately Search for Survivors, 72 reported dead

Rescue teams in the central Philippines deployed backhoes, sniffer dogs, and manual labour on Thursday to search for survivors amid the rubble of collapsed buildings following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck late Tuesday, killing at least 72 people and injuring over 200. The quake, centred 19 kilometres northeast of Bogo City in Cebu province at a shallow depth of just 5 kilometres, trapped numerous residents under debris in the coastal city of about 90,000 and surrounding rural areas. Officials anticipated a rising death toll as efforts intensified, complicated by sporadic rains, damaged bridges, and blocked roads that slowed access to remote sites.

In Bogo, where roughly half of the confirmed fatalities occurred, teams in orange and yellow hard hats worked through the night under spotlights, sifting through concrete slabs, splintered wood, and twisted metal in a collapsed building. Despite hours of exhaustive digging, no survivors were located there. Further afield, in a mountain village cluster of shanties, workers struggled to transport heavy equipment to areas ravaged by landslides and boulders. "It's hard to move in the area because there are hazards," said Glenn Ursal, a Bogo disaster mitigation officer, noting that some survivors had been extracted and rushed to hospitals. Additional deaths were reported in nearby Medellin and San Remigio towns, including three coast guard personnel, a firefighter, and a child killed by falling walls and debris during a disrupted basketball game at a sports complex.

The tremor, one of the strongest to hit the central region in over a decade, struck around 10 p.m. while many residents were asleep or at home, amplifying its devastating impact. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) issued a brief tsunami warning for Cebu, Leyte, and Biliran provinces, urging people to avoid coastlines, but lifted it hours later with no waves detected. Over 600 aftershocks followed, rattling nerves and prompting structural assessments that led to the closure of schools and government offices in affected areas. PHIVOLCS director Teresito Bacolcol highlighted the heightened risk of land- and mudslides on rain-soaked mountainsides, exacerbated by the quake's timing shortly after Tropical Storm Jenny battered the region last Friday, claiming 27 lives through drownings and falling trees while causing widespread power outages and evacuations.

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The Philippines, situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire"—a horseshoe-shaped zone of seismic faults encircling the ocean—faces frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and about 20 typhoons annually, making it one of the world's most disaster-vulnerable nations. Thousands of traumatised locals, still reeling from the storm's fury, opted to spend the night in open fields and parks despite intermittent downpours, too fearful to return indoors. "This was really traumatic to people. "They've been lashed by a storm, then jolted by an earthquake," Bacolcol said. "I don't want to experience what they've gone through." As rescue operations press on, communities grapple with compounded grief and the urgent need for recovery in a region already stretched thin by back-to-back calamities.

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