Hundreds of aftershocks hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday night after a strong earthquake struck Wednesday, forcing the stricken residents to sleep outside, a number of them said Thursday, while President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. headed to the region.
An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit the northern Philippine province of Abra on Wednesday morning, killing at least five people and injuring more than 150 others.
This powerful earthquake destroyed buildings and caused landslides. Buildings shook even the capital, Manila, 300 kilometers away.
“The aftershocks have been happening about every 15 or 20 minutes since yesterday,” said Reggie Tolentino, owner of a restaurant in Bangweed, the region’s largest city.
“A lot of people slept outside last night, almost all the families,” he added.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived in the area Thursday morning to inspect the damage, according to Presidential Palace TV, which broadcast his meeting with local officials live on Facebook.
The seismological agency said more than 800 aftershocks have been recorded since the main quake, including 24 strong enough for residents to feel.
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Police chief Colonel Mali Kula told AFP that the damage caused by the quake was “very slight” in the city of Abra. “There are not many people at the evacuation sites, although many people remain on the streets due to the aftershocks,” he added.
In the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) city of Vigan and a popular tourist destination in Ilocos Sur province, old structures built during the Spanish colonial period have been damaged.
460 buildings were damaged in the province, including the historic bell tower in Pantai, a popular tourist attraction. It has partially collapsed, county governor Jeremias Singson told Teleradio.
Singson said the earthquake had “affected the tourism sector and small business owners”.
The Philippines regularly experiences earthquakes due to its location on the “Ring of Fire”, the arc of intense seismic activity that circles the Pacific Ocean across Japan and Southeast Asia.
And Wednesday’s earthquake is the strongest in this country in several years.
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