A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the northern Philippines Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, shattering windows of buildings at the epicentre and shaking high-rise towers more than 300 kilometres (185 miles) away in the capital Manila.

The shallow but powerful quake struck the mountainous and lightly populated province of Abra on the main island of Luzon at 8:43 am (0043 GMT), the USGS said, after initially measuring the quake at 6.8 magnitude.

Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.

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