A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck the northern Philippines early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake hit the mountainous province of Abra on the main island of Luzon at 8:43am (0043 GMT), shaking high-rise towers more than 300 kilometres (185 miles) away in the capital Manila.
A 25-year-old construction worker in La Trinidad, the capital of the landlocked province Benguet, died when the three-storey building he was working on collapsed, police said. Seven other workers escaped unharmed.
The Philippines is regularly rocked by quakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
Wednesday’s (27) quake was the strongest recorded in the Philippines in years.
