Panic on streets as people rush out of buildings, duck for cover after earthquake in Philippines | Watch
Viral videos captured moments during and after the tremors are doing the rounds on social media, with people panicking and rushing out on to the streets.
A massive offshore earthquake of magnitude 7.5 hit off a southern Philippine province on Friday morning. Following the massive earthquake, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it expects damage and aftershocks, according to an Associated Press report.
The quake was centered at sea, about 62 kilometers southeast of the town of Manay in the Davao Oriental province in Philippines. It was caused by a movement in a fault, and was a shallow quake with a depth of 10 kilometres.
Videos purportedly showing the moments during and after the tremors are doing the rounds on social media, with people panicking and rushing out on to the streets.
Follow latest updates on the Philippines earthquake here
HT.com couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
In one of the videos, people are seen evacuating what is purportedly the Tagum City Davao Regional Medical Center. The patients and staff are seen running out of the facility and some are sitting on the side of the roads while holding trees. There are patients on a wheelchair and children among the evacuees.
Another video, reportedly from Butuan City in Mindanao, shows people out on the streets. The residents are heard screaming, with some sitting on the floor and others running in panic. The camera and surroundings are also seen shaking.
Earthquake triggers tsunami warning
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii's Honolulu has said that hazardous waves were likely within 300 kilometres of the epicenter of the quake, according to AP.
The center said tsunami waves of up to 3 meters (10 feet) above normal tides were possible on some coasts in Philippines, with smaller waves in Indonesia and Palau.
The tsunami waves can hit six nearby coastal provinces from Davao Oriental for up to two hours after the earthquake, which struck at 9.43 am, the office of civil defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said. He asked people to immediately move to higher grounds or shift further inland, away from coastal areas.
