Northern Philippines jolted by magnitude 6.1 earthquake

At least 11 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the magnitude 6.1 earthquake which jolted the northern Philippines on Monday, causing structures to collapse and knocking out power.

The quake hit 60km northwest of the capital, Manila, disrupting air, rail and road transport and causing some damage to buildings and infrastructure.

The province of Pampanga was worst hit where eight people were killed and about 20 were injured, according to provincial governor Lilia Pineda, citing information from disaster officials.

Rescuers were using heavy equipment and search dogs to try to reach people trapped after a four-floor building went down, crushing the ground-floor supermarket, she said.

Felt #earthquake (#lindol) M6.0 strikes 67 km W of #Manila (#Philippines) 8 min ago. Please report to: https://t.co/bl1j9EN3pt pic.twitter.com/feYTgKGGIg

— EMSC (@LastQuake) April 22, 2019

At least 31 people remained unaccounted for at the collapsed Chuzon supermarket, based on a rough accounting of its employees, although some could have been elsewhere when the earthquake struck.

The quake also damaged an airport terminal at Clark Freeport, a former US Air Force base, and an old Roman Catholic church in Pampanga, and caused cracks in highways and bridges.

Clark airport was closed temporarily because of damaged check-in counters, ceilings and parts of the departure area, airport official Jaime Melo said, adding that seven people were slightly injured and more than 100 flights were cancelled. 

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded at least 406 aftershocks as of Tuesday morning.

The Philippines is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where about 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes strike.

The last major quake to hit the country was a 7.1-magnitude tremor that killed more than 220 people in the central Philippines in October 2013.

In July 1990, more than 2,400 people were killed on the northern island of Luzon in a magnitude-7.8 quake, one of the strongest tremors ever to hit the country.