At least 43 killed in a 6.7 earthquake on Philippines

At least 43 people were killed today after an earthquake of 6.7 degrees of magnitude on the open Richter scale near the Philippine island of Negros, in the central region of the archipelago, said official sources.

A spokesman for the Philippine Army, Colonel Francisco heritage, told media that 29 victims were killed in the town of Guihulngan, Negros Oriental province, after a landslide in.

The director of the National Center for disaster, Benito Ramos told Efe that one of fatalities is a 9 year old girl who died crushed by a wall demolished by strong tremor in the village of Tayasan, in the province of Negros Oriental.

According to the report of the Agency, another 11-year-old boy died in the town of Jimalalud to collapse the wall of a chapel, while ten others unidentified perished in the town of Guihulngan, one in Tayasan, and another which the authorities do not u000athey have contributed data.

The director of the Center for disaster prevention said that the quake has caused cracks and breakage of glass in malls and some buildings of the public in the province of Negros Occidental and in the cities of Cebu and Iloilo.

. The spokesperson of the Philippine Red Cross, Gwendolyn Pham, told Efe that four Guihulngan bridges collapsed and the patients of the hospital had to be evacuated for fear that the building collapse, as it featured cracks of considerable size.

The initial earthquake occurred at the 11.49 local time (3.49 GMT) and its epicenter was located 19 kilometers of depth and 70 kilometers north of Dumaguete city with a magnitude of 6.7 according to the United States (USGS) geological.

Although, according to the Philippine service "Phivolcs", the depth was barely 10 kilometres and the intensity of 6.9 degrees.

At least five aftershocks have been recorded after the first earthquake of u000adifferent size.

The earthquake was followed in less than an hour of two replicas of 4.8 to 5.6 degrees of magnitude.

Was succeeded by another replica of 6.1 degrees of magnitude to a depth of 35 kilometers at 18: 10 local time (10: 10 UTC) 59 kilometers from the city of Dumaguete city, South of the island of Negros, according to data from the geological survey of United States (USGS), which measures the seismic activity around the world.

Little more than one hour later, at 19: 33 hour local (11: 33 GMT), another tremor of 6 degrees of magnitude to a depth of 15 kilometers and 59 kilometers from Dumaguete shake the area.

Is the last recorded replica of 5.2 on the Richter scale, about 36 kilometres in depth and 63 kilometers from Dumaguete.

The Government has ordered the fishermen who did not come to fish and asked the population in high-risk areas to leave their homes, although a forced evacuation is not expected.

Philippines sits on u000athe so-called 'ring of Pacific fire', a zone of high seismic and volcanic activity which is shaken by some 7,000 tremors per year, the moderate majority.

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