(Manila) Aftershocks hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday morning, hours after a strong earthquake injured at least six people and caused extensive damage to a hospital and several ancient churches, authorities said.
Updated yesterday at 11:45 p.m.
The 6.4-magnitude quake struck the mountainous town of Dolores in northern Abra province on Tuesday evening, before several aftershocks shook the earth again, the state seismological agency reported. .
“We hid under a table and my family didn’t come out of the house until after the tremor was over,” rescuer Ron Sequerra told AFP by phone.
Six people were injured in the town of Lagayan, in the same province, added Mr. Sequerra.
The town hall of Lagayan and the building of a high school were closed, after the appearance of cracks and broken glass, according to images posted on the official Facebook page of the commune.
In Batac, a town in the neighboring province of Ilocos Norte, patients spent most of the night outside a public hospital due to the collapse of the ceiling in several rooms which damaged equipment, said hospital staff.
Boulders rolled down a hill and temporarily blocked a road linking Batac to the neighboring commune of Banna, but rescue officials said the ground had since been cleared.
A number of ancient churches in Abra and Ilocos Norte also suffered damage, the civil defense office said.
Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Manotoc instituted a day off at schools and officials were told not to go to work as authorities checked the integrity of buildings.
In July, a magnitude 7 earthquake, also in the mountainous province of Abra, caused landslides and cracks in the ground, killing 11 people and injuring several, according to an official tally.
The Philippines is regularly hit by earthquakes due to its position on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that circles the Pacific Ocean through Japan and Southeast Asia.