At least 69 people killed in a powerful earthquake that hit the
Philippines
[October 01, 2025]
By JOEAL CALUPITAN and AARON FAVILA
CEBU, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers used backhoes and sniffer dogs to look
for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the
central Philippines Wednesday, a day after an earthquake killed at least
69 people.
The death toll was expected to rise from the magnitude-6.9 earthquake
that hit at about 10 p.m. Tuesday and trapped an unspecified number of
residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu
province.
Sporadic rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to
save lives, officials said.
“We’re still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of
Civil Defense 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 epicenter of the earthquake, which was set off by movement in an
undersea fault line at a dangerously shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3
miles), was about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal
city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where about half of the
deaths were reported, officials said.
The Philippine government is considering whether to seek help from
foreign governments based on an ongoing rapid damage assessment,
Alejandro said.
The United States, Japan, Australia and the European Union expressed
condolences.
“We stand ready to support the Philippine government's response as
friends, partners, allies,” MaryKay Carlson, U.S. ambassador to the
Philippines, said in a post on social media platform X.
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.
[to top of second column]
|
People look at a collapsed building in Bogo City, Cebu province,
Philippines Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after an offshore earthquake on
late Tuesday. (AP Photo)
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 Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly
issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the
coastlines of Cebu and the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran due
to possible waves of up to 1 meter (3 feet).
No such waves were reported and the tsunami warning was lifted more
than three hours later, but thousands of traumatized residents
refused to return home and chose to stay in open grassy fields and
parks overnight despite intermittent rains.
Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a tropical storm
that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27
people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees, knocking out
power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens
of thousands of people.
Schools and government offices were closed in the quake-hit cities
and towns while the safety of buildings were checked. More than 600
aftershocks have been detected after Tuesday night’s temblor,
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Teresito
Bacolcol said.
Rain-soaked mountainsides were more susceptible to land- and
mudslides in a major earthquake, he warned.
“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.”
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. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20
typhoons and storms each year.
___
Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines,
contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
