A powerful magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck off the southern Philippines on Friday, triggering tsunami warnings in the Asian nation as well as neighbouring Indonesia and Palau.

The quake hit about 20 kilometres (12 miles away) from Manay in the Mindanao region at 9:43 am (0143 GMT), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

“Destructive tsunami is expected with life-threatening wave heights” on the archipelago nation’s east coast, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported.

Coastal residents in these areas “are strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move farther inland,” it added.

Waves of up to three metres were forecast for threatened areas in the Philippines and up to a metre-high waves in Palau and Indonesia, the US National Oceanic

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