Philippines earthquake death toll rises to 46

GENERAL SANTOS: Rescuers in the southern Philippines pulled a body from the rubble of a collapsed supermarket on Wednesday, as the death toll from a major earthquake climbed to 46.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor just off the coast of Mindanao on Monday brought down buildings, triggered landslides, and set off tsunami warnings across a swathe of the southern island.

Joey Deluvio, 39, was one of two employees at a supermarket in General Santos City that has been the focus of recovery efforts despite the constant threat of aftershocks.

Life-detecting equipment had traced a “weak pulse” earlier in the operation, local rescuer Michelle Chua told AFP on Wednesday, but “when they got to the body… there were no signs of life”.

Deluvio’s body was found pinned between two beams, Chua added.

The national disaster agency raised the death toll to 45 on Wednesday, while the number of people missing jumped dramatically from four to 17.

However, the figure for fatalities did not include Deluvio, the civil defence office confirmed.

Most of the additional dead were from Davao Occidental province, and most had been killed in landslides or collapsing buildings, civil defence official Rafaelito Alejandro said in a radio interview.