At least 20 people have been killed after a strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines.
The quake sent residents on the island of Cebu scrambling out of their homes into darkness as the intense shaking cut off power in some areas.
It hit the island’s northern end near Bogo, a coastal city of 90,000 people, late on Tuesday, according to the US Geological Survey.
A Cebu government official told the New York Times that at least 20 people had been confirmed dead and at least 37 were injured.
At least 14 residents died in Bogo, rescue official Rexan Ygot said, as the death toll is expected to rise through the night.
Six people, including three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child, were killed in San Remigio town, south of Bogo, the town’s vice mayor, Alfie Reynes told local radio.
Four bodies were pulled from a sports centre in the town, while a child was crushed by debris in another area of the town, according to Philippine television network ABS-CBN.
Cebu provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro said an unspecified number of houses and a hospital were damaged in Bogo, with rescue work still underway.
She added that emergency medical teams were being deployed to treat residents, but that the extent of the damage and injuries would not be known until daytime.
‘We’re sending already a trauma team there, doctors and nurses are on the way,’ Ms Baricuatro told the DZMM radio network.
‘We need medicine, food, medical teams.’
Provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos said there ‘could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings’ but that recovery efforts were being hampered by the dark.
The Cebu provincial government has put out a call on its official Facebook page for medical volunteers to assist in the aftermath of the quake.
Firefighter Rey Cañete said that their fire station collapsed in the quake, and first aid had to be given to at least three residents, who were injured by falling debris.
‘We were in our barracks to retire for the day when the ground started to shake and we rushed out but stumbled to the ground because of the intense shaking,’ Cañete said.
Strong shaking from the earthquake could bring ‘considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures,’ said the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
There was no tsunami threat after the earthquake, which had a shallow epicentre of around 11km, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Dramatic footage showed a church tower collapsing on Bantayan Island as onlookers wailed in fear.
Parts of St. Peter and Paul Church, including a large cross and lighting decorations, crumbled to the floor as the ground rattled.
Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan, said: ‘I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily no one got hurt’.
‘I was in shock and in panic at the same time but my body couldn’t move, I was just there waiting for the shake to stop.’
Another church, the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santa Rosa de Lima in the town of Daanbantayan, Cebu, collapsed into a pile of rubble following the quake.
The Cebu provincial government reported that a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed, while a fast food restaurant in Bogo was heavily damaged.
The quake caused power lines to trip, leading to outages across Cebu and nearby central islands, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said in an advisory, adding it was still assessing the extent of the damage.
Elsewhere, a beauty pageant in Cebu City was halted following the quake, while former Big Brother star Sam Pepper was forced to evacuate a restaurant as he was filming a live stream.
In a live video message on her official Facebook account, Ms Baricuatro urged residents to ‘stay calm and move to open areas; keep away from walls or structures that may collapse and stay alert for aftershocks.’
She said the provincial government was assessing the situation and reaching out to municipal officials.
Agnes Merza, a 65-year-old carer based in Bantayan, said: ‘It felt as though we would all fall down. It’s the first time I have experienced it.
‘The neighbours all ran out of their homes. My two teenage assistants hid under a table because that’s what they were taught in the boy scouts.’
Authorities warned that aftershocks are expected in the coming days, urging residents to remain vigilant.
The local seismology office warned of a possible ‘minor sea-level disturbance’ and urged residents of the central islands of Leyte, Cebu and Biliran to ‘stay away from the beach and not to go to the coast’.
However, Teresito Bacolcol, director of the institute, later said that the tsunami warning was lifted with no unusual waves being monitored.
The Philippines lies on the ‘Ring of Fire’, a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is prone to seismic activity.
Earthquakes occur frequently but most are too weak to be felt by humans.
But strong and destructive ones come at random, with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.
Central Philippine provinces were still recovering from a storm that hit on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees.
