Manila : A strong earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale struck the Philippines on Tuesday night, according to local and international media reports. The strong tremors forced people out of their homes and led to a power cut in parts of Cebu province in Central Philippines. The tremor was recorded shortly after 10 p.m. local time (7:19 p.m. IST) on Tuesday. While some news reports said that the earthquake was centred around 17 kilometres northeast of Bogo City, the US Geological Survey reported that the epicentre lay about 11 kilometres east-southeast of Calape, a town in Bohol province home to roughly 33,000 residents.

Widespread impact across islands

While initially there were fears of a localised tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre subsequently confirmed that there was

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