▶️ Rescuers in the southern Philippines used heavy equipment and their bare hands, Monday, December 16, in hopes of finding several people feared trapped beneath a building toppled by a powerful earthquake that claimed at least three lives.
👉 Sunday's tremor cracked schools, toppled homes and injured dozens but largely spared big cities on the island of Mindanao, which is still recovering from a string of deadly quakes in October. The earthquake caused a three-story building to collapse and prompted people to rush out of shopping malls, houses and other buildings in panic, officials said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the magnitude 6.9 quake struck an area about 6 kilometers northwest of Padada town in Davao del Sur province. It had a depth of 30 kilometers.
Ricardo Jalad, who heads the Office of Civil Defense, said his office received an initial report that a small three-story building collapsed in Padada as the ground shook and that authorities were checking if people got trapped inside. The building housed a grocery store, Jalad said without elaborating. (AFP/AP)
