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Two strong earthquakes jolt southern Philippines

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck at 10:26 am (0226 GMT) off Balut island, 1,130 kilometres south of Manila, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

DPA WORLD
Published January 22,2022
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Two strong earthquakes jolted the southern Philippines on Saturday, but no major damage was expected and there was no threat of a tsunami, government seismologists said.

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck at 10:26 am (0226 GMT) off Balut island, 1,130 kilometres south of Manila, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

"No destructive tsunami threat exists based on available data," it added in a bulletin.

The institute said it was also not expecting major damage from the tremor, but warned there would be aftershocks.

Six hours earlier, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 shook the coastal town of Baganga in nearby Davao Oriental province, Phivolcs said.

The national disaster agency said that so far, there were also no reported major effects of the Baganga earthquake.

The Philippines is located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where about 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes take place.

A 7.1-magnitude quake that killed more than 220 people in the central Philippines in October 2013 was the last major quake to hit the country.

In July 1990, more than 2,400 people were killed on the northern island of Luzon in a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest ever to hit the country.