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Hundreds of aftershocks rock quake-hit northern Philippines – Science-Environment News – Report by AFR

Concerned residents slept outside after hundreds of aftershocks rattled the quake-hit northern Philippines, locals said Thursday as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr inspected damage in the area.

Five people were killed and more than 150 injured when a 7.0-magnitude tremor struck the sparsely populated province of Abra on Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The strong tremor shook the mountainous region, collapsed buildings, triggered landslides and shook high-rise towers hundreds of kilometers away in the capital Manila.

“Aftershocks are happening almost every 20 minutes, 15 minutes since yesterday,” said Reggi Tolentino, a restaurant owner in the provincial capital of Abra, Bangued.

“Many slept outside last night, almost every family.”

Some families have been given modular tents to sleep in. Marcos Jr. has urged people to wait for their homes to be inspected before retreating.

Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed, roads were blocked by landslides and power went out in affected areas.

But in Abra, which felt the full force of the quake, the overall damage was “very minor,” police chief Colonel Maly Cula told AFP.

“We don’t have many people at evacuation sites, although many people are staying on the streets because of the aftershocks,” Cula said.

“Abra is back to normal.”

Marcos Jr., who took office last month, arrived in Bangued on Thursday to inspect the damage and discuss response measures with government, military and disaster relief officials.

More than 800 aftershocks have been recorded since the quake, including 24 strong enough to be felt, the local seismological agency said.

The aftershocks are expected to last “several weeks,” Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said at a briefing chaired by Marcos Jr.

There will be “a lot” in the first three days, then “hopefully there will be less after that,” he said.

– Tourism company met –

Centuries-old Spanish colonial buildings were damaged in Vigan City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourist destination in the province of Ilocos Sur.

Governor Jeremiah Singson told Teleradyo TV that 460 buildings in the province were affected, including the Bantay bell tower, which partially collapsed.

“Our tourism industry and small business owners have been really impacted,” Singson said.

After her visit to Vigan on Thursday, Senator Imee Marcos, the president’s older sister, said the damage to the city’s ancient churches was “staggering”.

The Philippines is regularly rocked by earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.

Wednesday’s quake was one of the strongest recorded in the Philippines in recent years, and was felt across much of Luzon Island, the archipelago’s most populous island.

In October 2013, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Bohol in the central Philippines, killing more than 200 people and triggering landslides.

Old churches in the birthplace of Catholicism in the Philippines were badly damaged. Nearly 400,000 were displaced and tens of thousands of homes were damaged.

The powerful tremor changed the island’s landscape and a “earth breach” pushed up a strip of earth about ten feet, creating a rock face over the epicenter.

In 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the northern Philippines caused a 100-kilometer rupture in the ground.

The death toll was estimated at more than 1,200 with severe damage to buildings in Manila.

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