UPDATE: At least 69 killed in powerful earthquake in Philippines

UPDATE: At least 69 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a strong earthquake struck Cebu province in the central Philippines late on Tuesday night, according to local authorities.

The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise, according to officials, who said intermitted rain and damaged bridges and roads were hampering the race to save lives.

Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, Bogo city disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press early Wednesday.

“It's hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” said Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer, who added that some survivors were brought to a hospital from the mountain village.

Deaths also were reported from the outlying towns of Medellin and San Remigio, where three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child were killed separately by collapsing walls and falling debris while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game in a sports complex that was disrupted by the quake, town officials said.

The earthquake was one of the most powerful to batter the central region in more than a decade and it struck while many people slept or were at home.

The earlier edition of this article below was published at 8:53 a.m. on 1 October, Wednesday

“We're still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of Civil Defence deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a news briefing. “There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.”

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake, which hit at 9:59 p.m. local time, was initially measured at magnitude 6.7 but later upgraded to 6.9. The tremor’s epicentre was located around 19 kilometres northeast of Bogo City at a shallow depth of 5 kilometres.

Provincial officials confirmed that 13 fatalities occurred in Bogo City, while four people died in San Remigio town in northern Cebu. One death was reported in Medellin municipality, where several injuries and damage to two bridges were also recorded.

Local newspaper SunStar Cebu reported that Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo was overwhelmed as victims continued to arrive through the night.

Rescue operations were ongoing on Wednesday, with officials warning that the death toll could rise as more reports come in from affected areas. Several village roads were also damaged, complicating relief efforts.

The quake was felt widely across neighbouring provinces in the central Philippines and in some parts of the south. Power outages were reported across Cebu and nearby islands after transmission lines tripped, but the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said electricity was restored in Cebu and four other central islands shortly after midnight.

The Philippines is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area highly prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to frequent seismic activity.

With IANS Inputs