6.2-magnitude earth quake strikes off southern Philippines: USGS

MANILA: A magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck off the southern Philippines on Monday, the United States Geological Survey said, a week after a deadly quake in the same region killed at least 65 people.

The quake hit off the coast of Mindanao island at 5:18 pm (0918 GMT) at a depth of 112 kilometres (69.5 miles), the USGS reported. No tsunami warning has been issued.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, Kaiser Cadiz, of the Davao Oriental provincial disaster office, told AFP.

“Our priority now is to monitor the coast to determine if there are indications the water had receded (a warning of an impending tsunami),” she said, adding none had been observed so far.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor that hit Mindanao on June 8 brought down buildings, triggered landslides, and displaced thousands on the southern island while setting off tsunami warnings across the region.

The national disaster agency on Monday raised the death toll from that quake to 65. At least 36 people remain unaccounted for.

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence 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.

Eastern Mindanao was rocked by a pair of earthquakes of magintudes 7.4 and 6.7 in October that killed at least eight people.