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At least 35 people have been killed and more than 130 injured after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the southern Philippines on Monday morning, collapsing buildings, triggering landslides and setting off tsunami alerts across several countries in the region.
The quake hit at 7:37am local time, with its epicentre located roughly 20 kilometres off the coast of Sarangani province on Mindanao island — the Philippines' second-largest island, home to around 26 million people. Tremors were felt as far as 420 kilometres away in the Indonesian city of Manado.
The country's Office of Civil Defense said 31 of the confirmed deaths occurred in the Soccsksargen region, with four more recorded in Davao. Officials added that around 10,000 families had been displaced, and some 12 people remained missing as of Monday afternoon.
Videos circulating online showed the scale of the destruction vividly. A Jollibee fast food restaurant was reduced to rubble in General Santos City, near the epicentre, while footage from a primary school in Davao Occidental captured terrified students crouching on shaking ground as a shelter collapsed nearby. The school confirmed no students had been injured.
More than 130 aftershocks followed the initial quake, with magnitudes ranging from 1.3 to 6.7.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said government agencies were fully mobilised and coordinating their disaster response, ordering the suspension of classes across affected areas — a blow given Monday marked the first day of the school year.
"The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind," Marcos said in a statement.
Tsunami warnings were issued for the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and Australia before being cancelled or downgraded hours later. Small waves were recorded in Japan's Okinawa prefecture and along coastlines in Indonesia and Palau.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, making it one of the world's most seismically active nations.
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