Girl killed in Davao del Sur quake

Philippine Red Cross volunteers assist in search and rescue operations at the collapsed South Green building in Davao del Sur on Sunday. (PRC Twitter)

A six-year-old girl from Matanao, Davao del Sur, was comfirmed killed after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Sunday afternoon.

The Davao del Sur Provincial Information Office said Cherbelchen Imgador of Barangay Asinan was not able to get out of their house, which collapsed.

Nearby Padada town, about 90 kilometers south of Davao City, was badly hit by the strong tremor which struck at 2:11 p.m., displacing hundreds of families and damaging properties.

There was no threat of a tsunami, said the US Geological Survey.

“We can no longer use our office because the walls cracked and the stairs collapsed,” local police spokeswoman Lea Orbuda told AFP on Sunday. “The power is off and the water taps are dry.”

A provincial police commander said the number of injured across the hardest hit areas had reached 62.

The Philippines is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Three quakes above 6.0 magnitude hit roughly the same area of Mindanao in a span of weeks in October, killing some two dozen people and heavily damaging office buildings, schools and apartments.

Patients were evacuated from hospitals and nervous crowds massed outside shopping malls after the jolt and dozens of smaller, but strong aftershocks. (PNA, AFP)