MANILA (AFP) — A 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook the Philippine capital Tuesday sending office workers into the streets in panic as buildings swayed, but officials said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The quake struck Luzon island at 12:27pm (0427 GMT) and was centred 195 kilometres (120 miles) northwest of Manila at a depth of 62.5 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
The epicentre was just 45 kilometres west of Dagupan, a coastal city of about 140,000 people in northern Luzon, which saw neighbourhoods swallowed by the earth during a magnitude-7.9 quake that killed about 1,500 people in July 1990.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) gave Tuesday's quake a lower magnitude 4.2 reading and said damage or casualties were unlikely, though it said it was felt over large areas of Luzon, the main island in the Philippines.
Earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.0 can damage buildings.
It was caused by the movement of the undersea Manila Trench off Luzon's west coast, said Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum. Radio reports said some office buildings in Manila emptied as people rushed outside when they began to sway.
At Malacanang presidential palace, President Gloria Arroyo was conducting a cabinet meeting when the quake struck.
Journalists streamed out while the president and her cabinet transferred to a nearby building before resuming the meeting, aides said. "The president was calm and collected," said Arroyo aide Cerge Remonde.
A power line burst into flames near Manila city hall but no injuries were reported, while the city's light railway also stopped briefly, reports said.
In the northern mountain resort of Baguio, 85 kilometres northeast of the epicentre, city officials declared a school holiday and sent 35,000 students home.
"We wanted to avoid panic and for us to assess the possible damage," said Baguio Mayor Reinaldo Bautista.
Nursing student Grace Ang, one of hundreds who fled the five-storey University of Baguio building, said: "The building shook strongly."
The Philippines is hit regularly by earthquakes, although most are low in magnitude and cause little damage.
The southeast Asian archipelago is part of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a string of islands on the Pacific Ocean rim that were formed by the eruptions of undersea volcanoes.
Phivolcs chief Solidum said the earthquake was not strong enough to cause a volcanic eruption.
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