Employees evacuate building as quake hits central Philippines

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the central Philippines on Tuesday, sending residents fleeing their homes and damaging buildings and roads, with at least one person killed. The shallow quake struck southeast of Masbate Island in the Bicol region at 8:03 a.m. local time, the US Geological Survey said.

"There are a lot of damaged houses," said Staff Sergeant in Cataingan, a town of about 50,000 people on the impoverished island several kilometres west of the epicentre in the Samar Sea. There have no other reports of casualties but search and rescue efforts are still under way. So far at least 14 aftershocks have been recorded by the Philippine seismology office, with the strongest registering at a magnitude 3.5.