A 6-magnitude earthquake struck the Samar region of the Philippines on Monday, Reuters reported citing data from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
According to United States Geological Survey, the quake hit a depth of 73.3 kilometres, around nine kilometres from the province’s coastal town of San Julian.
A local police officer said the tremors were “strong and sudden”, adding that there were no immediate reports of injury.
“Here at the police station, one of the beams where our roof was attached was broken … I saw some furniture moving,” the police officer told AFP.
Why earthquakes are common in Philippines
Earthquakes are not unusual in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “ring of fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
In October last year, Eastern Mindanao in the Philippines was rocked by a pair of earthquakes of 7.4 and 6.7 magnitude, which resulted in the death of at least eight people.
These followed a magnitude 6.9 quake days earlier that killed 76 people and destroyed or damaged 72,000 houses in Cebu province in central Philippines, according to government figures.
