Philippines earthquake death toll rises to 93 as tourist islands rocked

Dozens die as a major 7.1 magnitude earthquake tears down buildings across three islands that are among the Philippines' most popular tourist attractions.

 Rescue members recover the body of a vendor killed after an earthquake hit Pasil market in Cebu City, Central Philippines. Reuters / Stringer
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CEBU, Philippines // At least 93 people were killed in the central Philippines yesterday after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake crumbled churches and sent residents into a panic.

Rescuers were struggling to reach survivors after the midmorning quake damaged roads and bridges.

The Bohol police chief Dennis Agustin said 77 of the deaths came from his province. At least 15 others died in nearby Cebu province and another on Siquijor Island.

The quake struck at 8.12am and was centred about 33 kilometres below Carmen city, where many small buildings collapsed.

Historic churches dating from the Spanish colonial period suffered the most damage. Among them was the country’s oldest, the 16th-century Basilica of the Holy Child in Cebu, which lost its bell tower.

Nearly half of a 17th-century limestone church in Loboc town, south-west of Carmen, was reduced to rubble.

The highest number of dead — 18 — were in the municipality of Loon, 42 kilometres west of Carmen, where an unknown number of patients were trapped inside the Congressman Castillo Memorial Hospital, which partially collapsed. Rescuers were working to reach them, said the civil defence spokesman Major Reynaldo Balido.

As night fell, the entire province was in the dark after the quake cut power supplies. Windy weather and rain also forced back a military rescue helicopter.

Authorities were setting up tents for those displaced by the quake, while others who lost their homes moved in with their relatives.

Extensive damage also hit densely populated Cebu city, across a narrow strait from Bohol, causing deaths when a building in the port and the roof of a market area collapsed.

The quake set off two stampedes in nearby cities. When it struck, people gathered in a gym in Cebu rushed outside in a panic, crushing five people to death and injuring eight others, said Neil Sanchez, provincial disaster management officer.

“We ran out of the building, and outside, we hugged trees because the tremors were so strong,” said Vilma Yorong, a provincial government employee in Bohol.

“When the shaking stopped, I ran to the street and there I saw several injured people. Some were saying their church has collapsed,” she said.

As fear set in, Ms Yorong and the others ran up a mountain, afraid a tsunami would follow the quake. “Minutes after the earthquake, people were pushing each other to go up the hill.”

Offices and schools were closed for Eid Al Adha, which may have saved lives.

Aledel Cuizon said the quake that caught her in her bedroom sounded like “a huge lorry that was approaching and the rumbling sound grew louder as it got closer”.

She and her neighbours ran outside, where she saw concrete electric poles “swaying like coconut trees”. It lasted 15 to 20 seconds, she said.

Cebu city’s hospitals quickly moved patients into the streets, basketball courts and parks.

Cebu province has a population of more than 2.6 million people. Cebu is the second largest city after Manila. Nearby Bohol has 1.2 million people and is popular among foreigners because of its beach and island resorts and famed Chocolate Hills.

* Associated Press