An earthquake of magnitude 8.1 struck Mindanao in the Philippines on Monday, the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences said. The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres. Residents felt the earthquake tremors in Indonesia's North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces.
In a separate alert, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that widespread hazardous tsunami waves could hit some coastal areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, Palau, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea within the next three hours.
In the southern Philippine city of General Santos, part of a building collapsed, according to radio dzRH. Students were evacuated on the first day of school, while a hospital moved patients outside onto the street as a precaution.
Indonesia issued tsunami warnings for several areas, including Kalimantan on Borneo island and parts of Sulawesi, warning of waves as high as three metres, the national weather agency said on X.
Power outages were reported and people were urged to go to higher ground. Further information on damage or casualties is yet to be known
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) urged people in coastal areas across nine provinces, including Sarangani, Davao Occidental, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu, to evacuate immediately to higher ground or move further inland.
"Owners of boats in harbours, estuaries or shallow coastal water of the above-mentioned provinces should secure their boats and move away from the waterfront,” the Philippine seismology agency said, as reported by Al Jazeera. It added that boats already at sea should remain offshore in deep waters until further notice.
The Philippines, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.
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