Philippines Earthquake Kills at Least 32 and Buries a Village in a Landslide as Rescuers Dig Through the Rubble

A powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake ripped through the southern Philippines on Monday morning, killing at least 32 people, injuring more than 200 and triggering a tsunami that sent residents of coastal Mindanao scrambling for higher ground. The undersea quake struck shortly before 7:40 a.m. local time, centered about 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the town of Maasim in Sarangani province at a depth of roughly 33 kilometers, according to seismologists.

The timing could hardly have been worse. The jolt hit as schools across Mindanao were holding flag-raising ceremonies on the first day of the new academic year, sending children and teachers rushing out of swaying buildings. In General Santos, a port city of more than 700,000 people, several low-rise structures buckled and a commercial building partially collapsed, burying people under concrete and twisted steel. Rescuers worked through the day to pull survivors from the wreckage as aftershocks, including one measured at magnitude 6.1, rattled an already terrified population.

The deadliest single blow came in the municipality of Glan, where the shaking unleashed a landslide that swept down on a village and killed at least 13 people, local officials said. Emergency crews described digging by hand and with heavy equipment to reach those trapped beneath the earth, while hospitals in the region treated a steady stream of the injured, many hurt by falling debris and collapsing walls.

The quake also pushed a roughly one-meter (three-foot) tsunami onto nearby shores, and small waves were recorded as far away as Indonesia, Palau and southern Japan. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned of dangerous waves but said the threat had largely passed about five hours after the quake struck, even as it urged people to stay alert to fluctuating sea levels. The international airport in General Santos was temporarily shut down, forcing the cancellation of 17 domestic flights as engineers checked the runway and terminal for damage.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered classes canceled in the hardest-hit provinces and directed national disaster agencies to move immediately into rescue and relief operations. The Philippines, which sits on the seismically violent Pacific "Ring of Fire," is struck by thousands of earthquakes each year, but few approach the destructive force of Monday's tremor. Officials cautioned that the death toll could climb as crews reach isolated villages cut off by landslides and damaged roads, and as the full scale of the damage in Sarangani and South Cotabato becomes clear in the coming days.