Powerful earthquake kills five and injures dozens in northern Philippines

The epicentre of the 7.0 magnitude quake was in a mountainous area in the hard-hit province of Abra

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  Rescuers retrieve a resident from a collapsed building in La Trinidad, Benguet province, after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Philippines. EPA

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  A building lies on its side in Bangued, Abra province, after the quake. AP

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  Villagers clear boulders along a road in the Cordillera region after the quake. EPA

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  Construction workers evacuate their building in Manila after the quake. AFP

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  The quake struck in northern Luzon but the impact was felt as far as Manila, 400 kilometres away. AFP

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  The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology advised citizens to brace for aftershocks. AFP

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  Residents cross a damaged road in the town of Bangued. AFP

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  The earthquake's epicentre was about 13km south-east of the town of Dolores in Abra province, at a depth of 10km. AFP

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  The quake left many buildings leaning to the side while others ended up with deep cracks in the walls. EPA

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  Abra is a landlocked province known for its deep valleys and mountainous terrain. EPA

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  A damaged car sits on a road in Bangued, Abra province, after the quake. AP

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  Rescuers manoeuvre along debris in Vigan city, Ilocos Sur province, after the earthquake struck. EPA

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  Rescuers attend to an injured resident of Bangued. EPA

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  The quake damaged a mason temple in Bangued. AP

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  Residents clear up debris outside an old house in Vigan city, north of Manila. AFP

A strong earthquake set off landslides and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring dozens. In the capital, hospital patients were evacuated and terrified people rushed outdoors.

The 7.0 magnitude quake's epicentre was in a mountainous area in the hard-hit province of Abra, Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told the Associated Press as he described the midmorning shaking as a major earthquake.

“The ground shook like I was on a swing and the lights suddenly went out. We rushed out of the office, and I heard screams and some of my companions were in tears,” said Michael Brillantes, a safety officer of the Abra town of Lagangilang, near the epicentre.

“It was the most powerful quake I have felt and I thought the ground would open up.”

At least five people died — mostly in collapsed structures. A villager died after he was hit by falling cement slabs in his house in Abra, while at least 25 residents of the province were injured and were taken to hospital, officials said.

In Benguet province, a worker was pinned to death after a small building that was under construction collapsed in the strawberry-growing mountain town of La Trinidad.

Hundreds of houses and buildings had cracked walls, including some that collapsed in Abra, where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office less than a month ago, planned to travel Thursday to meet victims and local officials.

Marcos Jr. told a news conference he was in his office at the riverside Malacanang presidential palace complex when the chandeliers began swaying and making clanking sounds. “It was very strong,” he said of the ground shaking.

In a chilling near-death experience, Filipino photojournalist Harley Palangchao and his companions were travelling downhill in two vans in Mountain Province when they suddenly heard thunder-like thuds and saw an avalanche of boulders as big as cars raining down just ahead of them from a towering mountain.

Amid screams of his companions in their van to “back up, back up!” the 44-year-old father of three raised his camera in the front seat and snapped what he feared could be the final pictures of his life. The van in front of them was grazed by a boulder, injuring one, but he and others in the second van drove backwards fast enough and escaped unscathed.

Boulders fall down a hillside as a vehicle negotiates a turn on a road in Bauko, Mountain Province, during the quake on Wednesday. AP

“I was thinking there should be at least a record if something happened to us,” Palangchao told the AP.

“It was a horrific experience.”

The Red Cross issued a picture of a three-story building precariously leaning toward a debris-covered road in Abra. A video taken by a panicking witness showed parts of an old stone church tower peeling off and falling in a cloud of dust on a hilltop.

Patients, some in wheelchairs, and medical personnel were evacuated from at least two hospitals in Manila, about 300 kilometres south of Lagangilang, but were later told to return after engineers found only a few minor cracks on walls.

The quake’s strength was lowered from the initial 7.3 magnitude after further analysis. The quake was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 17 kilometres, the institute said, adding it expected damage and more aftershocks.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur. It is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.