A drone view shows a collapsed building after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in General Santos, Mindanao Island, the Philippines, on Monday. GENSAN DEV/REUTERS
MANILA — An offshore magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the southern Philippines Monday, killing at least 32 people, according to provincial authorities, after toppling buildings and sending a 1-meter tsunami into nearby coasts.
National disaster authorities said at least a dozen people were still missing, while more than 200 others had sustained injuries. Thousands of villagers were displaced, Office of Civil Defense spokesperson Junie Castillo said.
The quake came early in the morning as schools were reopening in the Philippines after a long break, with the tremors felt strongly in a dozen provinces and 420 kilometers away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
A few buildings collapsed and key infrastructure sustained quake damage in the hard-hit city of General Santos, a port city of about 720,000 people.
