A resident looks at the rubble of St. Catherine church on Tuesday, including the toppled head of a statue, following a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Pampanga province northwest of Manila the previous day.Bullit Marquez/AP
Monday’s quake also shook the nation’s capital, where panicked office workers fled buildings, some in hard hats
LAUREL WAMSLEY, NPR||A powerful 6.4 earthquake has struck the Philippines, the day after a different temblor took lives and collapsed buildings.
Rescuers continued to search for survivors from Monday’s quake, centred just 50 miles northwest of Manila, the capital. That tremor killed at least 16 people, according to The Associated Press. So far, it appears that Tuesday’s 6.4 magnitude quake in Eastern Samar province did not cause any casualties or major damage.
Monday’s magnitude 6.1 quake struck Pampanga province, north of Manila, shortly after 5 p.m. local time. A supermarket collapsed in the municipality of Porac, killing at least five people, the AP reports. Others remain missing.
One man was reportedly pulled out alive from the supermarket’s rubble on Tuesday morning, to cheers from onlookers.
“We’re all very happy, many clapped their hands in relief because we’re still finding survivors after several hours,” Porac Councilor Maynard Lapid told the AP.
Fifteen of the dead were in Pampanga province, the state news service reported. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in the affected area Tuesday, where he inspected the damage and was briefed on the situation.
President Rodrigo Duterte
#PresidentDuterte inspects the ongoing search, rescue and retrieval operations at the flattened four-storey Chuzon Supermarket in Porac, Pampanga #LuzonQuake1610:57 AM – Apr 23, 2019See PIA Gitnang Luzon’s other TweetsTwitter Ads info and privacy
Aurelia Daeng, 65, told Reuters that she was in her family’s drug store when the quake struck on Monday. “It was very strong. It was our first time experiencing something like that,” she told the news service. “This one, it’s terrifying.”