GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the southern Philippines on Monday killed at least 35 people, according to provincial authorities, after toppling buildings and sparking tsunami warnings across the region.
National disaster authorities said at least a dozen people were still missing, while 134 had sustained injuries. Philippine authorities urged people in affected coastal regions to move to higher ground after the offshore quake hit south of General Santos, a city of about 720,000, where the death toll was now 12, according to the tally at a local command centre.
A series of powerful aftershocks rocked the area from about two hours after the first quake, according to the United States Geological Survey, with the largest measuring magnitude 6.5. As night descended, AFP journalists watched as rescue workers in General Santos used their hands to dig through the rubble of a popular grocery store chain in a desperate bid to reach two employees buried beneath.
Morphy Angcad, a 35-year-old security guard, told AFP he was not ready to accept that his sister, one of the two, was dead. “We received a call this morning telling us that she was one of the trapped there,” he said, adding he had refused a hotel room so he could stand watch. “I don´t want to leave this site until I see the body of my sister... (but) I´m hoping against hope that she is still alive.”
Dioslinda Deluvio told AFP her son Joey, the other employee, had come to visit her just weeks earlier, asking: “Ma, what is your plan for your life? Are you OK?” “All I can do is cry now, imagining the good things he did in the world,” she said. A few kilometres away, others were preparing to spend the night on a sidewalk.
