A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck the northern Philippines early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake hit the mountainous province of Abra on the main island of Luzon at 8:43am (0043 GMT), shaking high-rise towers more than 300 kilometres away in the capital Manila.
Dolores, 13km southeast of the epicentre, felt the full force of the quake and terrified people ran outside their buildings, reported AFP quoting a police official.
“The quake was very strong,” Police Major Edwin Sergio said, adding there were minor cracks in the police station building. No casualties or major damage have been reported so far.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said several aftershocks have followed the quake. The Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity around the Pacific Ocean, is regularly rocked by quakes.
The region is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms every year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. In 1990, a magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines.