A 7.5-magnitude earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan, with tremors felt in Pakistan and northern India.
At least 51 people are said to have been killed in Pakistan, with 19 deaths reported in Afghanistan.
According to the US Geological Survey, the tremor was centered in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 46 miles south of Faizabad.
Buildings were evacuated in the capitals of all three countries and communications disrupted in many areas.
In the Afghan province of Takhar, a stampede at a girls’ school triggered by the quake left 12 students dead and another 25 were injured, local reports said.
Seven people have been reported killed and 71 injured in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
In Pakistan, 28 people have been killed in the northern tribal areas, another 20 in the north-west and three more in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, officials told AFP news agency.
Officials said the quake happened at a depth of 212km. The magnitude was initially put at 7.7 but later downgraded.
An aftershock measured at 4.8-magnitude struck shortly afterwards.
People in the Indian capital Delhi ran into the streets after the tremor struck, and schools and offices were evacuated. The Delhi metro was also briefly halted.
Indian PM Narendra Modi tweeted that he had ordered an urgent assessment of any damage.
“We stand ready for assistance where required, including Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.
The region has a history of powerful earthquakes caused by the northward collision of India with central Asia.
In 2005, a magnitude 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir left more than 75,000 people dead.
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Arizona near the New Mexico state line on late Saturday.
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Arizona near the New Mexico state line
There were no initial reports of major damage or injuries.
According the US Geological Survey, the quake struck at 10 p.m. PT (1 a.m. ET Sunday) and was centered about 31 miles northwest of Lordsburg, New Mexico, and about 179 miles east-southeast of Phoenix. The epicenter was shallow and was in a sparsely populated area north of Interstate 10 and just south of the small town of Duncan, Arizona.
A new 6.8-magnitude earthquake has struck Pakistani province Balochistan, where at least 400 people died in a quake earlier this week.
Reports said the new quake hit remote Awaran district, killing at least 12 people and burying others under rubble.
An official told Pakistan television that communications already damaged by last Tuesday’s quake had been cut off.
Efforts to help thousands left homeless by the first earthquake have struggled against poor roads and separatists.
The US Geological Survey said Saturday’s tremor measured 6.8-magnitude and could be felt across Balochistan province.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department classed it as an aftershock measuring 7.2 magnitude.
Abdul Rasheed Baloch, the deputy commissioner of Awaran district, told Pakistani television that one village, Nokjo, had suffered damage to most of its buildings, leaving people trapped under debris.
A new 6.8-magnitude earthquake has struck Pakistani province Balochistan, where at least 400 people died in a quake earlier this week
“The telephone system has been damaged and we are not able to talk to someone and find out the exact information about the losses… but we have reports of severe losses in that area,” he said, according to Associated Press.
Eight of those who died in Saturday’s tremor were from Nokjo, officials said, with another four killed in the Mashkay area.
An AFP reporter in Awaran said hundreds of patients being treated after the last quake fled a hospital in panic as the latest tremor struck.
Saturday’s quake was felt as far away as Karachi.
An office worker there described his chair shaking: “At first I thought it was a delusion or a false feeling. But all my colleagues ran out of the office. The shakes were heavy.”
Officials have estimated that about 300,000 people were affected by the earlier, 7.7-magnitude quake which leveled mud and homemade brick homes, injuring hundreds.
Many survivors have been sleeping in the open air or in tents.
Rescue and relief efforts after the earlier quake have been hampered by the region’s poor road network.
Officials have appealed to separatist military groups operating in the area following attacks on army units involved in providing assistance.
Pakistan’s official paramilitary force, the Frontier Corps, has been leading rescue and relief operations.
It already had thousands of soldiers deployed in the area because it is fighting a long-running separatist insurgency by Baloch nationalist rebels.
The violent force of Tuesday’s 7.7-magnitude quake caused the creation of a new 56ft long island off the coast of Pakistan near the port of Gwadar.
Pakistan earthquake death toll raised to 328 while hundreds more are wounded in south-west province of Balochistan.
The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday afternoon at a depth of 13 miles north-east of Awaran, the US Geological Survey said.
Many houses were flattened and thousands of people have spent the night in the open.
After the quake, an island appeared off the coast near the port of Gwadar.
People gathered on the beach to see the new island, which is reported to be about 656ft long, 300 ft wide and 60ft high, and scientists have been sent to survey it.
Officials say such land masses have appeared before in the area, and usually disappear again over time.
Pakistan earthquake death toll raised to 328 while hundreds more are wounded in south-west province of Balochistan
Tuesday’s quake was so powerful it was felt as far away as India’s capital, Delhi, and Dubai. Workers in Karachi had to evacuate their offices because of the strong tremors.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least populated province.
The military has a heavy presence in the area because it is fighting a long-running separatist Baloch insurgency, and so its troops were among the first to respond to the crisis.
More than 300,000 people have been affected over a total of six districts – Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghi and Khuzdar – Balochistan government spokesman Jan Muhammad Buledi said.
The death toll currently stood at 328 – 160 in Awaran town, 125 in other areas of Awaran district and 43 in Kech.
It is feared the death toll could rise once other areas are reached. The number of wounded is reportedly more than 440.
Awaran local government official Abdul Rasheed Baluch said about 90% of houses in the district had been destroyed.
Some 250 houses collapsed in the village of Dalbedi and villagers were clawing through debris for possessions, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
The army says it has sent more than 200 soldiers, medical teams and tents from the regional capital Quetta.
But the mountainous terrain and loss of communications is hampering the rescue operation.
Helicopters have been airlifting the most seriously injured to Karachi, while others are being cared for in neighboring districts.
The affected area is vast, impoverished and sparsely-populated. Awaran district reportedly has around 300,000 residents.
Most people live in easily-collapsible mud homes, and many are feared to be trapped under the rubble.
The region is prone to earthquakes, with at least 35 people killed in a 7.8-magnitude tremor that was centred in south-eastern Iran in April.
At least 238 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake hit Pakistan’s remote south-west province of Balochistan.
The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday afternoon at a depth of 13 miles north-east of Awaran, the US Geological Survey said.
Many houses were flattened and thousands of people have spent the night in the open.
After the quake, a small island appeared off the coast near the port of Gwadar, witnesses reported.
People gathered on the beach to see the new island, which is about 30ft high and 300ft long, Gwadar Police Chief Pervez Umrani said.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least populated province.
The region is prone to earthquakes, with at least 35 people killed in a 7.8-magnitude tremor that was centred in south-eastern Iran in April.
The latest quake was so powerful it was felt as far away as Karachi, Hyderabad, and India’s capital, Delhi.
At least 238 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake hit Pakistan’s remote south-west province of Balochistan
Entire villages are reported to have been flattened in the impoverished and sparsely-populated district of Awaran.
Balochistan government spokesman Jan Buledi put the death toll at 238, more than 200 of the fatalities in Awaran town and the surrounding villages. He has warned that it could rise. At least 340 people have been injured.
“We are seriously lacking medical facilities and there is no space to treat injured people in the local hospitals,” Jan Buledi said.
He said helicopters were airlifting the most seriously injured to Karachi while others were being cared for in neighboring districts.
Pakistan’s military was among the first to respond to the crisis, having a heavy presence in the area already because it is fighting a long-running separatist Baloch insurgency.
The army said it had sent more than 200 soldiers, medical teams and tents from the regional capital Quetta, but the mountainous terrain is said to be hampering the rescue operation.
Awaran local government official Abdul Rasheed Baluch said around 90% of houses in the district had been destroyed.
“Almost all the mud houses have collapsed. We have been busy in rescue efforts for the whole night and fear we will recover more dead bodies from under the rubble during daylight,” he said.
Many of the casualties are said to be from Labach, on the northern outskirts of Awaran town.
Houses are also reported to have caved in the district of Khuzdar.
An emergency has been declared in Awaran and another earthquake-affected district, Chagai.
Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, has shrunk, according to new data released by US geographers.
Mount McKinley, located in the US state of Alaska, measured 83ft shorter than previously understood.
The mountain now stands at 20,237ft. It was last officially measured in 1952, researchers said.
Mount McKinley, located in the US state of Alaska, measured 83ft shorter than previously understood
The US Geological Survey speculated that the reduced height could either be the result of more accurate measurement technology or of “climate differences”.
The US Geological Survey released the data as part of the agency’s effort to update all of Alaska’s topographic maps.
The new measurement was taken in 2012 using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, a technology designed to digitally track small geographic forms.
The 1952 measurement put the peak at 20,320ft, a figure that has remained on topographic maps since.
Mount McKinley, a popular mountaineering destination also known as Denali, is located in Denali National Park in the US state of Alaska.
China’s north-west Gansu province has been hit by two powerful earthquakes killing at least 47 people and injuring almost 300.
The first earthquake near Dingxi city had a magnitude of 5.98 and was shallow, with a depth of just 6 miles, the US Geological Survey said
Just over an hour later, a magnitude 5.6 quake hit the same area, it added.
In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province left up to 90,000 people dead and millions homeless.
At least 47 people had been killed, reports from China’s national radio and Agence-France Presse news agency citing local officials said.
Another 296 other people were injured, the Dingxi local government said on its official Sina Weibo microblog.
China’s north-west Gansu province has been hit by two powerful earthquakes killing at least 47 people and injuring almost 300
A factory worker in Min county told AFP that he felt “violent shaking” and “ran to the yard of the [factory] plant immediately”.
“Our factory is only one floor. When I came to the yard, I saw a 18 storey building, the tallest in our county, shaking ferociously, especially the 18th floor,” he said.
The area has been hit by 371 aftershocks, according to the Earthquake Administration of Gansu province.
At least 5,600 houses in the province’s Zhangxian county are seriously damaged and 380 have collapsed, while some areas suffered from power cuts or mobile communications being disrupted, the earthquake administration added.
The closer to the surface an earthquake strikes, the more damage it can cause, our correspondent adds.
The earthquake reportedly triggered a series of mudslides and landslides, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The Gansu military police has deployed 500 soldiers, including 120 specialist rescuers, while 500 emergency tents and 2,000 quilts are also being transported to affected areas, Xinhua added.
Officials from the civil affairs, transportation and earthquake departments are also visiting local towns to assess the damage, a statement on the Dingxi party website said.
“You could see the chandeliers wobble and the windows vibrating and making noise, but there aren’t any cracks in the walls,” AP news agency quoted a clerk at Wuyang Hotel, about 25 miles from the epicentre, as saying.
“Shop assistants all poured out onto the streets when the shaking began,” the clerk said.
A powerful earthquake hit China’s south-western province of Sichuan killing at least 46 people and injuring at least 400, state TV reports.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which had a 6.6 magnitude, was centred 31 miles west of the town of Linqiong.
The tremor occurred at a depth of 7.4 miles.
There are fears the death toll could rise further.
An 8.0 magnitude quake in Sichuan in May 2008 killed nearly 90,000 people.
An 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008 killed nearly 90,000 people
The latest quake – initially reported as a 7.0 magnitude, and then at 6.9 – struck at 08:02 local time, the USGS said.
The earthquake was felt 71 miles away in the provincial capital, Chengdu, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua.
People ran into the streets wrapped in blankets, according to photos posted online. Other pictures showed buildings that had collapsed.
A resident in Chengdu told Xinhua he had been on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.
Electrical and water supplies have reportedly been cut to the affected area.
Telephone lines are also believed to be down.
Xinhua said 2,000 soldiers had been dispatched to the area to help with rescue efforts.
The city of Ya’an, close to the epicentre, has a population of 1.5 million.
The USGS noted that “significant” casualties were likely and that “extensive damage is probable and disaster is likely widespread”.
“Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response,” it added.
The 2008 disaster in Sichuan left 5 million people homeless.
South-east Iran has been hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, with tremors felt across Pakistan, India and the Middle East.
The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the earthquake was 53 miles from the city of Khash, near the border with Pakistan.
Offices were evacuated in Abu Dhabi and tall buildings swayed in the Indian capital Delhi, witnesses said.
Iranian state TV has reported at least 40 people killed, although one official says he fears hundreds have died.
This is the largest earthquake in Iran in the last 40 years.
At least 37 people were killed and 850 wounded in the earthquake that struck near Bushehr on April 10
All communications have been cut and assessment teams are being sent to the stricken area, he says.
The earthquake struck in the province of Sistan Baluchistan at around 3:14 p.m., close to the cities of Khash, with a population of nearly 180,000, and Saravan with 250,000.
Iran’s Fars news agency was reporting that no serious damage had been reported in Saravan.
The quake was felt in the cities of Karachi and Quetta.
It comes a week after a 6.3-magnitude quake struck south-west Iran, near its nuclear power station.
At least 37 people were killed and 850 wounded in the earthquake that struck near Bushehr on April 10.
At least 30 people have been killed and other 800 have been injured after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Bushehr province in south-west Iran, officials say.
Rescue teams have been sent to the affected area, but darkness is hampering rescue operations.
The quake struck 90 km (60 miles) south of Iran’s only nuclear power station in Bushehr, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.
At least 30 people have been killed and other 800 have been injured after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Bushehr province in south-west Iran
However, the nuclear plant has not been affected and is working normally, officials have said.
The quake was felt across the Gulf in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Some 10,000 people are thought to live in the affected area in more than 50 villages, two of which have reportedly been completely leveled.
The governor’s office has sent generators to the area so rescue operation can continue overnight.
Seismologists said the quake struck at 16:22 local time at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles) near the town of Kaki, south of Bushehr – a Gulf port city that is home to Iran’s first and only nuclear power plant.
Iran’s seismological centre in Bushehr province, linked to Tehran University, registered the quake at a magnitude of 6.1.
Tens of aftershocks – the strongest measuring a magnitude of 5.4 – struck within an hour, sending many people into the streets for safety.
One resident in Bushehr told Reuters news agency that they could “clearly feel the earthquake” but there was no damage.
State media reported that phone lines had been brought down by the quake and its aftershocks.
The earthquake shook buildings across the Gulf.
The governor of Bushehr, Fereydoun Hassanvand, told Iranian state TV that the nuclear plant was not damaged.
An official with the Russian firm Atomstroyexport told Russian media that the quake “in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor”.
“Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm,” the official was quoted by Russian state news agency Ria as saying.
Iran’s nuclear programme has roused concern among major powers that Tehran wants to build nuclear weapons – a charge Iran strongly denies.
Iran straddles a major geological fault line, making it prone to seismic activity. In 2003, an earthquake in the city of Bam left more than 25,000 people dead.
At least four people died after an earthquake hit the Solomon Islands triggering Pacific tsunami.
The quake, with a magnitude 8.0, struck at 01:12 GMT near the Santa Cruz islands, part of the Solomon Islands nation, the US Geological Survey said.
A tsunami measuring 0.9m (3ft) then hit Lata in the far eastern Solomons and a tsunami warning was briefly trigged for several Pacific nations.
Dozens of homes on Santa Cruz are reported to have been destroyed
Lata is the main town on Nendo, also known as Santa Cruz Island, which is the largest island in the Santa Cruz island chain.
The worst of the damage was said to have been on the western coast, with one report putting the waves there at 1.5 m.
Robert Iroga, press secretary to the Solomons prime minister, said the waves west of Lata had travelled some 500 m inland, and that three villages had been damaged.
He said the latest reports from the region were that four people had been killed.
Police are travelling to the area, he said, and the priority is to ensure the local airport is functioning so aid and supplies can be flown in.
But medical staff at the Lata Hospital put the number killed at five – four elderly people and one young boy.
Irene Scott, who works at the Power FM radio station in the Solomons, said several people had gone to local hospitals for injuries including broken bones.
At least four people died after an earthquake hit the Solomon Islands triggering Pacific tsunami
Initial reports by the USGS said the quake had a shallow depth of 5.8 km (3.6 miles) but it later revised the figure to 28.7 km (17.8 miles).
Luke Taula, a fisheries officer in Lata, told Reuters news agency the wave came as several small tidal surges.
“We have small waves come in, then go out again, then come back in. The waves have reached the airport terminal,” he told the news agency.
Tsunami warnings were issued for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, and Wallis and Futuna islands, but later cancelled.
“No tsunami threat exists for other coastal areas although some may experience small sea level changes,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The Solomon Islands form part of the Ring Of Fire, a zone of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches encircling the Pacific basin.
The 8.0 earthquake was followed by several aftershocks, the largest measuring 6.6 magnitude.
The region has been experiencing a series of smaller quakes in recent days.
In 2007 an 8.1 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed at least 52 people in the Solomons and left thousands homeless.
Japan has issued a tsunami warning after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the country’s eastern coast.
The quake was felt in the capital Tokyo, media report.
The tsunami warning was issued for the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The wave hit the city of Ishinomaki, while the quake was also felt strongly in the capital, Tokyo.
The epicentre of the quake was about 245 km (150 miles) south-east of Kamiashi at a depth of about 36 km, the US Geological Survey said.
Miyagi was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat to the wider Pacific Ocean but that a tsunami could be generated that was destructive for local coastlines.
There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Warnings of the tsunami height have varied between 50 cm and 2 m.
Any such height would represent a far lower risk of devastation than the 10-11 metre tsunami that struck in 2011 but that since then the country has clearly become jittery about any shaking of the earth.
At the moment, he says, the damage appears to be on a limited scale, although even a one-metre tsunami could be a significant event.
Japan has issued a tsunami warning after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the country’s eastern coast
Evacuations have been ordered from some of the affected areas.
A presenter on state broadcaster NHK told viewers: “Remember last year’s quake and tsunami. Call on your neighbors and flee to higher ground now!”
Buildings were reported to have swayed violently in Tokyo.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda cancelled campaigning for the 16 December election to return to his office.
Communications to Miyagi have proven difficult, with the high volume of telephone calls. Trains in the prefecture have been halted and the runway at Sendai airport closed.
English teacher John Heritage, who is in Tagajo in Miyagi Prefecture, said the earthquake was not as powerful as some he had experienced but was worrying as it went on so long.
“We’re now at an official evacuation centre with about 50 other people waiting to hear what to do next,” he said.
Other people reported being alerted to the earthquake prior to its arrival by Japan’s mobile phone-based warning system.
One tweeted that he was given 10 seconds and was able to slow his car before the shaking struck.
The USGS reported three aftershocks in the same area, of 6.2, 5.5 and 4.7 magnitudes.
The 9.0 magnitude quake that struck on March 11th, 2011, caused a devastating tsunami and left more than 15,000 people dead, with more than 3,200 missing.
That quake triggered a meltdown of fuel rods at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing radiation leaks and mass evacuations.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, told Agence France-Presse there were no reports of problems there this time, although workers have moved to higher ground.
A strong earthquake has rocked central Burma, and there are unconfirmed reports of casualties.
The 6.8-magnitude quake hit some 120 km (70 miles) north of the second-largest city of Mandalay, at a depth of just 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.
Burma’s local media say a bridge under construction collapsed in the town of Shwebo, closest to the epicentre.
In Mandalay, terrified residents dashed out of their homes for safety, fearing more tremors.
The earthquake hit at 07:42 local time, the US Geological Survey said.
An unnamed government official in the capital Naypidaw told Agence France-Presse that so far two people were known to have died, three have been injured and five people are still missing.
A police officer in Shwebo said five construction workers who had been working on the Radana Thinga bridge near the town were missing after “a huge steel beam fell into the river”.
He told Reuters that one woman had died and 10 people had been injured in the nearby town of Kyauk Myaung after a house collapsed.
“This is the worst earthquake I felt in my entire life,” 52-year-old Shwebo resident Soe Soe told Associated Press.
Residents in Mandalay described panic in the streets as they fled the shaking buildings.
“I ran from my bed carrying my daughter out to the street. There were many people in the road. Some were shouting and others felt dizzy,” San Yu Kyaw said.
“People are now scared of more earthquakes,” he added.
The earthquake – which was felt as far away as Bangkok in neighboring Thailand – was followed by two strong aftershocks.
The US Geological Survey issued a yellow alert, indicating that “some casualties and damage are possible”.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Burma.
In March 2011, at least 75 people died when a powerful earthquake hit Burma near the borders with Laos and Thailand.
A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 50 people dead and 150 injured, Chinese state media say.
The quakes struck the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with the largest felt at 11:19 Beijing time, Xinhua news agency said.
The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the series of quakes at 5.6 magnitude.
The quakes affected mostly mountainous areas that saw landslides, reports say.
A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 50 people dead and 150 injured
Zhang Junwei, a spokesman from the Yunnan seismological bureau, told the Associated Press (AP) agency that most of the deaths were from Yunnan’s Yiliang county.
“The casualty number is still being compiled. I don’t know what was like for the other towns, but my town got hit badly,” another government official in Yiliang told AP.
No deaths have been reported in Guizhou so far.
The death toll is expected to rise further, especially in areas affected by landslides, Xinhua says.
“Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages,” Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan’s Luozehe town, was quoted as saying.
Xihua reported that at least 100,000 people have been evacuated and earlier reports said that more than 20,000 houses were damaged.
Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing disruption, according to reports.
Hundreds of local residents had gathered on streets littered with bricks and rocks, television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV showed.
Users of the Twitter-like weibo reported people rushing out of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed streets strewn with rubble.
Local officials said teams had been sent to distribute tents and blankets to those affected.
The largest of the quakes was also felt in the neighboring province of Sichuan, where a 7.8 magnitude quake in 2008 left tens of thousands dead.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake has rocked the north-western part of Costa Rica triggering a tsunami warning, the US Geological Survey said.
A tsunami warning is in effect for Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua.
The quake was centred about 50 miles (80 km) south of the town of Liberia and was at a depth of 12.4 miles.
It rattled buildings and cut power in some parts of the capital of San Jose, Reuters news agency reported.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake has rocked the north-western part of Costa Rica triggering a tsunami warning
Power and communications in much of the country were briefly knocked out, according to Costa Rican authorities.
Regional media reported it could be felt as far away as Nicaragua and El Salvador.
The US Geological Survey originally said the quake had a magnitude of 7.9, but revised it down to 7.6.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reduced the area of the tsunami warning, which had earlier included the Pacific coast of most of Central and South America to Costa Rica and its immediate neighbours.
Douglas Salgado of the National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention told the Associated Press news agency that there were no initial reports of damage or deaths in the earthquake zone.
He said officials were having problems reaching people in the area nearest the epicentre.
A tsunami warning has been issued for the Philippines, Indonesia and Palau after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake offshore.
The quake had a depth of 33 km (20 miles) and struck at 20:47 local time, the US Geological Survey said. It was located off the Philippines island of Samar.
A tsunami warning has been issued for the Philippines, Indonesia and Palau after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake offshore
There are no details of any damage or casualties from the quake.
It is not yet known if a tsunami has actually been generated.
Warnings were also initially issued for Taiwan, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Yap, but were later lifted.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines on late Monday morning killing at least 13 people, official reports say.
The death toll includes at least two children, according to the government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
The quake hit 70 km north of Dumaguete city on Negros island at 11.49 (03.49 GMT) at a depth of 20 km, according to the US Geological Survey.
Two aftershocks with a magnitude of 4.8 and 5.6 followed.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines on late Monday morning killing at least 13 people
Dozens of people have also been reported as still missing. Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing in areas where houses and buildings had collapsed due to landslides.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology issued a tsunami alert for the area, but had lifted it by 14.30.
The late morning quake in the Negros and Cebu region had caused panic in nearby cities, with people rushing out of schools, malls and offices. Officials in some areas suspended work and cancelled classes.
A child was reportedly crushed to death by a collapsed wall in Tayasan town in Negros, Benito Ramos, NDRRMC chief told reporters.
Buildings in the cities of Cebu and San Carlos shook violently and sustained damages such as broken windows and cracks on the walls, he added.
The Philippines is located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A 7.7-magnitude quake killed nearly 2,000 people in Luzon in 1990.
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 hit Peru’s central coastline, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.
The quake hit just after midnight (05:00 GMT) with its epicenter some 15 km (nine miles) south-east of the city of Ica, which suffered extensive earthquake damage in 2007.
Monday’s quake struck at a depth of 39 km (24 miles), the USGS said.
Peruvian media report that more than a dozen people have been injured.
“The majority are suffering trauma and cuts,” Fernando Leon Castaneda, manager of a local hospital, told Radio Programas del Peru.
Reports from Ica said electricity supplies had gone off but so far there are no reports of major damage.
The province of Ica was struck by a 7.9-magnitude undersea earthquake in 2007 that left thousands homeless.
Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off Aceh province.
The 7.3 magnitude quake struck 423 km (262 miles) south-west of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The earthquake had a depth of 29.1 km (18.1 miles), according to USGS.
A giant earthquake struck off Indonesia in December 2004 triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed some 230,000 people, half of them in Aceh.
An official with Indonesia’s geological agency, Arief Akhir, confirmed that a tsunami warning had been issued.
Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” – one of the most seismically active regions on earth.
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