The death toll in a powerful earthquake that hit the central Philippines late Tuesday rose to 72 Thursday with nearly 300 others injured.

Filipino seismologists say the earthquake in and around the city of Bogo was triggered around 10 p.m. (local time) Tuesday by a shallow undersea fault line that hasn't moved for at least 400 years.

Officials say the earthquake damaged or destroyed 87 buildings and nearly 600 houses and affected more than 170,000 people.

Rosalyn Araneta, whose neighbours were killed in the earthquake, said the disaster was "hard to accept."

“We don’t know how we will recover. We have no place to live," she added.

Meanwhile, a typhoon blew into the northern Philippines on Friday, complicating the country's disaster response to the earthquake.

Typhoon Matmo blew into Dinapigue town in Isabela province from the Pacific with sustained winds up to 130 kph (81 mph) and was to blow northwestward over a vast agricultural valley and mountain provinces, where residents in some flood- and landslide-prone villages were evacuating.

Although the typhoon was not expected to directly affect the provinces recovering from the earthquake, heavy rains were seen in Bogo City on Friday.