A natural disaster whose damage remains to be assessed. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the Philippines on Thursday (June 15th), the US Geological Institute (USGS) said, as local authorities warned of aftershocks and possible damage.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 124 kilometers at around 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. Paris time) off the city of Calatagan, in the province of Batangas, near the capital Manila. Calatagan Police Chief Emil Mendoza said he rushed outside with his station workers after the tremor.
No casualties or damage were immediately reported, but disaster management authorities were deployed to assess the toll of the tremor, Emil Mendoza told Agence France-Presse.
Ronald Torres, disaster management officer at Calatagan, said the quake lasted between 30 seconds and a minute. The tremor was felt in the capital, Manila, where residents ran out of buildings. Earthquakes occur daily in the Philippines, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity.
The last major earthquake occurred in the northern Philippines in October. Measuring 6.4, it struck the town of Dolores in the mountainous province of Abra, injuring several people, damaging buildings and knocking out electricity in most of the region.
A magnitude 7 earthquake also hit Abra province in July, killing eleven and injuring several hundred, causing landslides and cracks in the ground.