Jim Gomez
Manila, Philippines - A powerful earthquake rocked the northern Philippines early on Sunday, cracking walls of buildings, knocking out electricity and seriously injuring several people, officials said.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, jolted much of the main island of Luzon at 2:03am (18h03 GMT) and sent residents rushing from their beds into the streets.
In Manila, electrical poles were toppled and buildings swayed dramatically, knocking objects off tables and cracking walls. Guests were evacuated from luxury hotels and patients were removed from at least two hospitals.
Power was knocked out in much of the city and surrounding areas as safety devices tripped at five power plants, shutting down 600 megawatts of generating capacity, officials said. Electricity remained out in some places more than nine hours later.
It was the second time in two days that the northern Philippines was hit by a massive power failure. On Friday night, most of Luzon was without electricity for several hours after circuit breakers tripped at three power stations. Power companies blamed the failure on large numbers of jellyfish sucked into a plant's sea water cooling system.
Rescue teams were placed on alert on Sunday but few serious injuries were reported, officials said.
A 13-year-old boy sleeping in a public market in Iba in Zambales province was seriously injured when a steel roof beam fell on him, they said. A wall at another market in Zambales also collapsed.
A worker at a mall being constructed in Pangasinan province was hit by a falling oxygen tank and hospitalized.
In Manila, a huge steel cement container attached to a construction crane toppled off the seventh floor of a building to the street below. The crane operator was slightly injured as he jumped to safety.
Many roads were littered with glass shards from broken windows and doors in buildings and restaurants.
In a Manila tourist area, customers were slightly injured as they fled from a restaurant, Mayor Lito Atienza said.
"People panicked. Some were hurt while rushing down the stairs," he said.
The quake lasted 26 seconds and was centred 61km southwest of Lingayen in Pangasinan, north of the capital, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
It affected provinces from Ilocos Norte in northern Luzon to Quezon in the south. Radio news reported that panicked residents rushed out of their homes in many towns.
"I told my husband it's the end of the world," said Charie Jenny, a guest evacuated from Manila's Diamond Hotel. "But he said there's nothing we could do because our room is on the ninth floor."
Officials said the earthquake was caused by a movement of the Manila Trench, which runs along the western side of the Philippine archipelago in the South China Sea. Several aftershocks occurred, with the strongest registering 5.5 magnitude and the others too weak to be felt by humans, seismologists said.
The Philippines is in the Pacific Ring of Fire where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur.
Nearly 2 000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked the northern Philippines on July 16, 1990.
- Sapa-AP