(Eagle News) — At least four people have been confirmed dead, while six are believed to be still under the rubble with rescue and retrieval operations trying to reach to them in a collapsed grocery and public market in Padada town in Davao del Sur after Sunday afternoon’s quake measuring magnitude 6.9 that hit the province.
A report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, however, said that there were seven dead, but clarified that this was still for confirmation.
So far, three bodies have been pulled from the rubble in Padada, while a six-year old girl had earlier been reported killed in Matanao town after their house collapsed due to the strong quake.
The third body was recovered before 6 p.m., according to Padada town mayor Pedro Caminero, Jr. The three-storey building which housed a grocery store is located in the Padada’s public market area.
NDRRMC said that at least 49 people were reported injured in the quake.
-Rescuers hope for more survivors-
Rescuers used heavy equipment and their bare hands on Monday in hopes of finding several people feared trapped beneath a building toppled by a powerful earthquake that claimed at least three lives.
They were still looking for a person who had texted authorities saying six people were trapped under the rubble.
“The person can no longer be reached,” fire official Fred Trajeras told reporters, adding that rescuers’ held out hope survivors could be found.
On Sunday, shortly after the deadly quake, applause erupted after Lesley Jane Gatos, 31, was pulled from the rubble.
Gatos used her phone to call for help and then began making noise to attract the attention of rescuers, who reached her after clearing a path in the debris.
“Finally I was able to get out. I saw people. They clapped because I was the first one rescued,” she told AFP.
Sunday’s tremor cracked schools, toppled homes and injured dozens but largely spared big cities on the island of Mindanao, which is still recovering from a string of deadly quakes in October.
The collapsed building was near the epicenter of the 6.9 magnitude quake and is in the same region that was hit by three tremors above 6.0 in a matter of weeks in October.
Those quakes killed some two dozen people and forced tens of thousands into shelters as well as heavily damaging homes and offices.
The Philippines is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Searchers were fanning out across the quake-hit areas of Mindanao on to fully assess the damage, but have already reported several schools and hospitals were cracked.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who is from Davao and was there during the quake, was not hurt.
(with a report from Agence France-Presse)
