The 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck on Monday, triggering landslides and hundreds of aftershocks [Reuters]
Rescue workers in the Philippines are searching for dozens of people feared killed by a powerful earthquake that triggered landslides and toppled buildings on the heavily populated islands of Negros and Cebu.
Officials in Manila on Tuesday put the death toll from the 6.7-magnitude quake at 15, but rescue co-ordinators and local officials put the figure much higher and said the number was expected to rise.
Local military chiefs said 43 people were confirmed killed, but officials warned dozens of others were believed to be injured or missing in remote mountainous areas.
“Heavy equipment we’ve requested from the provincial government has not arrived yet, because the roads and bridges are impassable,” said Alvin Futalan, the police chief of Guihulngan town on Negros, which was heavily damaged.
“We are using our hands and shovels to search in the rubble,” he told the AFP news agency.
Thirty-nine people were reported killed in Guihulngan, a coastal city of 100,000 people flanked by mountains that was close to the quake’s epicentre.
Many buildings in the centre of the
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