A powerful nighttime earthquake in the southern Philippines killed at least six people and injured more than 120, with officials combing through cracked buildings and nearby towns Saturday to check on the damage and other possible casualties.

The magnitude 6.7 quake roused residents from their sleep late Friday in Surigao del Norte province, forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes, reports whio.com.

Quoting Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology, the report also said the quake was centered about 16 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital of Surigao at the depth of 10 kilometers.

Nearly 100 aftershocks have been felt, officials said. Evacuation centers accommodated wary residents overnight, but many returned home Saturday, Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said, adding that officials were continuing to assess the damage in Surigao and outlying towns.

Several buildings, including a state college, a hotel and a shopping mall, were damaged in the city, located about 700 kilometers southeast of Manila.

Surigao was placed under a state of calamity to allow faster release of emergency funds, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Anthony Maghari said by phone.

Roads had visible cracks in the coastal city and a bridge collapsed in an outlying town, officials said.

The last major earthquake that struck Surigao, an impoverished region also dealing with a communist insurgency, was in the 1879, Solidum said.

A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people on the northern island of Luzon in 1990.

Amid the calamity, the military appealed to New People’s Army guerrillas not to disrupt rescue and rehabilitation work. “We urge you not to attack our soldiers,” military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said.

The Philippines sits in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.

BDST: 1802 HRS, FEB 11, 2017
SR