A 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 32 people across the central Philippines today, toppling buildings and historic churches and sending terrified residents into deadly stampedes.
Panic ensued as people spilled out on the street after the quake struck at 8:12 a.M. (local time). It was centered about 33 kilometers below Carmen town on Bohol Island, where many buildings collapsed, roads cracked up and bridges fell.
Extensive damage also hit densely populated Cebu city, across the narrow strait from Bohol, causing deaths when a fish port and a market roof fell.
The quake set off a stampede in a Cebu gym where people lined up to receive government cash assistance, killing five and injuring eight others, said Neil Sanchez, provincial disaster management officer. In another city nearby, 18 people were injured in the scramble to get out of a shaking building where the assistance was being handed out.
At least 16 people died in Bohol and 15 in Cebu, officials said. Scores were injured.
"We ran out of the building, and outside, we hugged trees because the tremors were so strong," said Vilma Yorong, a Bohol provincial government employee.
"When the shaking stopped, I ran to the street and there I saw several injured people. Some were saying their church has collapsed," she told The Associated Press by phone.
As fear set in, Yorong and the others ran up a mountain, afraid a tsunami would follow the quake. "Minutes after the earthquake, people were pushing each other to go up the hill," she said.
But the quake was centered inland and did not cause a tsunami.
Offices and schools were closed for a national holiday, the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which may have saved lives. The earthquake also was deeper below the surface than the 6.9-magnitude temblor last year in waters near Negros Island, also in the central Philippines, that killed nearly 100 people.
Aledel Cuizon, who works for a Finnish company in Cebu, said the quake that caught her in her bedroom sounded like "a huge truck that was approaching and the rumbling sound grew louder as it got closer."
She and her neighbors ran outside, where she saw "the electric concrete poles were swaying like coconut trees." She said it lasted 15-20 seconds.
Cebu city's hospitals quickly evacuated patients in the streets, basketball courts and parks.
