A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the southern Philippines, the US Geological Survey said, as local authorities warned of a “destructive tsunami” and urged people in coastal areas to flee.
The USGS said that the quake hit at a depth of 31 kilometres (20 miles) at 10:37 pm local time (1437 GMT) about 21 kilometres northeast of Hinatuan municipality in Surigao del Sur province on Mindanao island.
“Destructive tsunami is expected with life-threatening wave heights,” the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on X, formerly Twitter.
It said waves of more than one metre above the normal tides were expected to hit the coast. It advised people in Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to “immediately evacuate” to higher ground or further inland.