Eight killed as quakes hit far northern Philippines
Manila, Jul 27: Eight people were killed and dozens injured when a series of earthquakes struck islands in the far northern Philippines early Saturday, toppling historic buildings and sending terrified locals fleeing their homes.
The tremors hit the province of Batanes, a group of sparsely populated islets north of the nation's largest Luzon island, tearing deep cracks in roads and forcing the evacuation of a hospital.
Authorities said some of the dead, including two babies under a year old, were crushed by the walls of their own homes.
"We saw houses shaking. Some of the walls of the houses collapsed and fell on the victims," Police sergeant Uzi Villa told AFP.
"Some people died because they were sleeping soundly since it was still early," he added.
Many people were still asleep when the first tremor struck around 4:15 am (2015 GMT Friday), followed just under four hours later by a second, stronger jolt.
The biggest of the quakes of magnitude 5.4 and 5.9 struck within hours of each other, according to the US Geological Survey.
At least three aftershocks followed, which prompted edgy locals to spend hours in town squares waiting for the string of quakes to end.
Authorities said two people were reported missing, though they have not completed a search of the area because debris was blocking some roads.
Raul de Sagon, mayor of worst-hit Itbayat town, told AFP that eight people had been killed and around 100 others were hurt, including seven serious cases that had to be flown out.
Itbayat's hospital was damaged and patients had to be wheeled to safety, while at least one high school and the area's 19th-century church were heavily damaged.
Batanes is pounded every year by tropical cyclones and typhoons that blast through the Philippines and homes are built of stone to survive the annual onslaught.
"We always experience typhoons so houses here are made to withstand strong winds," de Sagon said. "But we were not prepared for earthquakes such as this."
The Philippines is part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from quake-prone Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
The country's most recent deadly quake occurred in April when at least 11 people were killed and a supermarket collapsed in a 6.3-magnitude tremor that hit a region north of the capital Manila.
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Salah-less Liverpool plays Inter in Champions League. Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea all in action
London (AP): After leaving Mohamed Salah at home, Liverpool needs to show it can win without the Egyptian forward as Arne Slot's team takes on Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday.
On a night when Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Tottenham are all in action, the focus is on Liverpool after Salah said Saturday it “seems like the club has thrown me under the bus.” Liverpool's response was to leave him out of the squad for its trip to Italy.
Liverpool's poor recent form boosts Inter's chances of picking up a fifth win in six games. A win for 13th-place Liverpool would put Slot's team back into the hunt for the top eight seedings for the knockout stages.
After losing its last Champions League game 3-0 to Chelsea, Barcelona aims to recover at home to struggling Eintracht Frankfurt. It will have to do without defender Ronald Araujo, who is suspended after his red card against Chelsea and has also been unavailable for personal reasons.
Seventh-place Chelsea is unbeaten in four Champions League games and visits Atalanta aiming to strengthen its hold on a top-eight spot offering direct entry to the round of 16. Bayern can earn its fifth win of the league stage by beating Sporting Lisbon in an early kickoff.
Tottenham, which lost 5-3 to Paris Saint-Germain last time out, has an easier task against Czech team Slavia Prague. Atletico Madrid visits PSV Eindhoven, Monaco hosts Galatasaray and Union Saint-Gilloise plays Marseille.
One game starts in an unusually early window at 1530 GMT (10:30 a.m. ET) as Kazakhstan's Kairat Almaty hosts Greece's Olympiacos.
