Officials in Indonesia, Philippines and Japan warn of possible tsunami waves after quake off Mindanao.
A powerful earthquake has struck the Philippines, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami alerts across Asia.
The magnitude 7.8 quake struck off the southern island of Mindanao shortly before 7:40am local time on Monday (23:40 GMT Sunday), according to the United States Geological Survey.
The initial earthquake was followed by more than an hour of aftershocks, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
Video posted on official social media channels showed a three-storey building that housed a Jollibee restaurant collapsing in a cloud of debris and dust in Mindanao’s General Santos City, startling onlookers.
Other images showed extensive damage to buildings, including smashed windows and caved-in roofs.
The Philippine seismology authority said the city, which lies in the southern region of Soccsksargen, experienced a 7 out of 10 “very strong” earthquake on its internal intensity scale.
The number of potential casualties is yet to be confirmed.
Mary Ann Blanco Rhudy, a Catholic nun working for Notre Dame of Dadiangas University in General Santos, said she was travelling to the college when the earthquake struck.
“The cars on the road were moving erratically. I am lucky that they didn’t crash against each other,” she told Al Jazeera.
“The trees on the side of the road were also swaying violently.”
Rhudy said some of the buildings at the college have partially collapsed.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday morning that emergency agencies had been activated, including the Office of Civil Defence and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Marcos urged people to follow government advisories about the risk of tsunami waves.
“To our kababayans [countrymen] in the affected provinces, please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Marcos said.
Marcos said schools across several provinces of Mindanao have been closed for the day.
The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said earlier that tsunami waves as high as 3 metres (9.8 feet) could hit coastal areas of the Philippines, and waves of up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) were possible in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia.
The first waves were expected to hit the Philippines and parts of Indonesia at about 10am local time (02:00 GMT), followed by southern Japan and Taiwan at about 11am (03:00 GMT), and Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands an hour later, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The US National Tsunami Warning Center, which downgraded the quake from an earlier estimate of magnitude 8.2, said the quake posed no threat to coastal areas of the US.
Officials in Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia have issued alerts warning of hazardous waves and advising citizens in coastal areas to get to safety.
Philippine authorities said people in nine provinces – including Sarangani, Davao Occidental, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu – should immediately evacuate to higher ground or 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,” PHIVOLCS said.
“Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised.”
Indonesia also issued an immediate evacuation order for parts of northern Sulawesi, northern Gorontalo province and the Sangihe Islands, with residents urged to move to higher ground.
A tsunami warning is also in place for Japan’s outlying islands, including Okinawa and the country’s southern coast.
Officials in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam cancelled earlier tsunami warnings, but said there was still a risk of strong currents and dangerous beach conditions.
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