Dozens killed after deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits southern Philippines | CNN

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck the Mindanao region in the southern Philippines on Monday, killing dozens of people and triggering scenes of panic as buildings collapsed and emergency sirens blared in parts of the archipelago. The quake struck around 07:37 a.m. local time at a depth of about 35 kilometers (21.7 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, adding that the tremors were “notable.” At least 37 people were killed and authorities were still working to verify the number of people injured, said Diego Agustin Mariano, deputy spokesperson for the Civil Defense Office, on Tuesday morning. The Philippines, Indonesia and Japan are situated in the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Just last year, the deadliest quake to hit the Philippines in more than a decade ripped through the nation, killing at least 74 people on the central island of Cebu. The quake on Monday hit off the shores near General Santos City in Sarangani province, the southernmost tip of the Mindanao island, the country’s seismology agency, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology