BOGO, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers used backhoes and sniffer dogs to look for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the central Philippines after an earthquake killed at least 72 people and injured more than 200 others.
The death toll was expected to rise from the 6.9 magnitude quake that hit about 10 p.m. Tuesday and trapped an unspecified number of residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province. Sporadic rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to save lives.
A dangerous quake On Wednesday night, rescuers in orange and yellow hard hats used spotlights, a backhoe and bare hands to sift through the rubble of concrete slabs, broken wood and twisted iron bars for hours in a collapsed building in Bogo city. No survivor was found.
“We’re still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a Wednesday morning news briefing in Manila, the country’s capital. “There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.”
Rescuers search for survivors underneath rubble in Bogo, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Rescuers search for survivors underneath rubble in Bogo, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
The earthquake occurred at a dangerously shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles) and was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where officials reported about half of the known deaths.
The Philippine government is considering whether to seek help from foreign governments based on an ongoing rapid damage assessment, Alejandro said.
A desperate searchWorkers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, Bogo city disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press early Wednesday.
“It’s hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” said Glenn Ursal, another disaster mitigation officer, who added that some survivors were brought to a hospital from the mountain village.
Deaths also were reported from the outlying towns of Medellin and San Remigio, where three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child were killed separately by collapsing walls and falling debris while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game in a sports complex that was disrupted by the quake, town officials said.
People grieve after identifying the body of a victim outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
People grieve after identifying the body of a victim outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
The earthquake was one of the most powerful to batter the central region in more than a decade and it struck while many people slept or were at home.
A traumatized regionThe Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines of Cebu and the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran, but the warning was lifted within hours with no waves reported.
Still, thousands of traumatized residents refused to return home and chose to stay in open grassy fields and parks overnight despite intermittent rains.
Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a tropical storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees, knocking out power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
A man injured in an earthquake is seen outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
A man injured in an earthquake is seen outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
A man rests beside bodies of victims of an earthquake outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
A man rests beside bodies of victims of an earthquake outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)
Schools and government offices were closed in the quake-hit cities and towns while the safety of buildings were checked. More than 600 aftershocks have been detected after Tuesday night’s temblor, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Teresito Bacolcol said.
Rain-soaked mountainsides were more susceptible to land- and mudslides in a major earthquake, he warned.
“This was really traumatic to people. They’ve been lashed by a storm then jolted by an earthquake,” Bacolcol said. “I don’t want to experience what they’ve gone through.”
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
___
Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
