Earthquake in Philippines was at a depth of 63 km (Representational)
-An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao, Philippines, on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, at a depth of 63 km (39 miles), and tsunamis were expected to hit the Philippines and Japan shortly.
The Philippine Seismology Agency PHIVOLCS said tsunami waves could hit the Philippines by midnight local time (1600 GMT) and could continue for hours.
The Japanese broadcaster NHK said tsunami waves of up to a metre (3 feet) high were expected to reach Japan’s western coast a little later – by 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (1630 GMT on Saturday).
The US Geographic Survey put the quake at magnitude 7.6 and a depth of 32 km (20 miles), and said it had struck at 10:37 p.m. (1437 GMT).
Earlier last month, a magnitude 6.7 offshore earthquake in the southern Philippines killed eight people.
The deaths in the November 17 quake were reported from Sarangani, South Cotabato, and Davao Occidental provinces, while 13 people were injured from the tremor, which sent scores of people into panic and damaged more than 50 houses and other buildings.
Earthquakes are frequent in the Philippines, lying in the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, which the U.S. Geological Survey describes as the “most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world”.
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