Monday, February 6, 2012

Children among seven dead as quake hits Philippines

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake off the central Philippine island of Negros killed at least seven people today, including two children, with government offices and schools ordered to close after at least 40 aftershocks.

A grade-six pupil died after being plucked out from a collapsed chapel wall while a nine-year-old girl was killed when the concrete wall of a school collapsed, officials said.

A three-storey building caved in and some seaside cottages were destroyed by waves in La Libertad, Negros Oriental, near the epicentre of the quake 5 km (three miles) off the shore of Tayasan town and at a depth of 10 km, according to local calculations.