A violent magnitude 7 earthquake struck the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least one person.
It hit the island of Luzon, the largest of the archipelago, sowing panic among the inhabitants and shaking buildings as far as the capital Manila, located 300 km further south.
According to the American Seismological Institute (USGS), the quake was recorded at 8:43 a.m. local time (2:43 a.m. in Paris), at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km in the mountainous province of Abra.
The USGS revised the magnitude to 7, from 7.1 previously.
Many weaker aftershocks have already been recorded.
USGS
The USGS recalls that this area is regularly affected by very strong earthquakes.
Since 1970, within a radius of 250 km around the epicenter of this Wednesday, 11 earthquakes with a magnitude at least equivalent to 6.5 have occurred.
This averages about once every 5 years.
A 25-year-old worker died when the three-storey building he was working on collapsed in La Trinidad, capital of Benguet province.
The seven other workers on the same site are unharmed.
Lots of damage
In the town of Dolores, located very close to the epicenter, terrified residents ran from their homes and the windows of the local market were shattered, local police commander Edwin Sergio said.
“The earthquake was very strong.
The fruit and vegetable tables in the market were overturned,” he continued, adding that cracks appeared on the walls of the police station.
Another police commander, Nazareno Emia, said several injured people were taken to hospital.
“Some buildings have cracks.
Electricity and internet are cut,” he said.
MP Ching Bernos, who represents Lone District, Abra, said the quake "damaged many homes and businesses", without further details.
In Vigan City, in the neighboring province of Ilocos Sur, buildings dating from the Spanish colonial period (1565-1898) were damaged.
Videos show in particular damage to the historic bell tower of Bantay, a famous tourist attraction.
It was built in 1590.
WATCH: Portions of Bantay Bell Tower in Ilocos Sur crumble after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Abra Province this morning https://t.co/Yea6QsB9V6
📹 Edison M. Adducul pic.twitter.com/UnxZqfpPsV
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) July 27, 2022
Mira Zapata, a student, said he was at his house in the city of San Juan when he felt "a very strong jolt".
“We started screaming and ran outside,” he said, as the aftershocks continued.
"Our house is in good condition but those down the hill were damaged," continued this witness.
Landslides have been reported in parts of the affected region, National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Mark Timbal said.
He added that no damage had been reported on the dams and that clearing operations were underway on the roads.
Another religious and tourist building was however also damaged.
This is Saint Paul's Cathedral in Vigan.
The structure was heavily impacted and pieces crumbled.
The Cathedral of Vigan is one of the country's oldest Augustinian churches.
The strong earthquake that hit Luzon this morning caused some parts of the structure to fall https://t.co/Yea6QsB9V6
📹 Caesar Bueno Lumibao Jr. pic.twitter.com/NNnalCCHdE
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) July 27, 2022
Faced with this situation, local authorities have closed schools and businesses in many localities.
Many countries expressed their support and readiness to help.
The French Embassy, after expressing its "thoughts and prayers for those affected by the earthquake", recalled the number at which it can be reached in case of emergency: +63 917 532 0756.
The Philippines is regularly hit by earthquakes due to its position on the "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that circles the Pacific Ocean through Japan and Southeast Asia.
Wednesday's earthquake is the most powerful in the country for years.
In October 2013, an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the island of Bohol, in the center of the country, left more than 200 dead and 400,000 displaced.
The tremor had triggered catastrophic landslides.
Tens of thousands of homes as well as historic churches dating from the early days of Catholicism in the Philippines had been destroyed.
This powerful earthquake had changed the landscape of the island and caused a spectacular "break in the ground", raising part of the ground up to three meters and creating a wall of rock above the epicenter.
In 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the northern Philippines killed more than 1,200 people, caused extensive damage in Manila and broke ground over more than a hundred kilometres.
