A magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the southern Philippines on June 8, killing at least 37 people and injuring hundreds as buildings collapsed and landslides hit communities across Mindanao.
Philippine civil defence officials were still verifying the toll, which stood at 37 dead, 479 injured and four missing in the reporting supplied for this article. Around 88,000 people were affected, including 20,690 who had been displaced. Most reported deaths and injuries were attributed to falling debris and landslides.
The earthquake struck at 7:37 a.m. local time offshore near Maasim in Sarangani province. The Philippine Star reported that the tremor was upgraded to magnitude 7.8 and that Intensity VII shaking was recorded in General Santos City. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology initially located the epicentre about 13 kilometres southwest of the city and put the focus at roughly 10 kilometres below ground. The US Geological Survey also measured the quake at magnitude 7.8 but estimated a substantially greater depth of about 55 kilometres, illustrating the differences that can occur in early seismic assessments.
Damage across Mindanao
The strongest documented damage was close to the epicentre. Verified video showed the upper floor of a fast-food restaurant collapse in General Santos City and exterior concrete walls fall from a commercial complex. A convenience store entrance was destroyed, while part of a high school in Davao del Sur collapsed as students gathered outside.
Multiple hospitals were damaged, according to Philippines Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon. Some patients were treated in temporary areas including tents because people feared that hospital structures might fail during aftershocks. Authorities warned residents not to re-enter damaged homes or other buildings while the risk of further shaking remained.
The earthquake struck as public schools reopened for a new academic year. Video from Mahayhay Elementary School in Davao showed pupils rushing to safety during a morning flag ceremony. The Red Cross said it supported students at three high schools, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered schools in affected areas to suspend classes until further notice.
Power failures were reported in parts of the affected region. Emergency teams also had to clear routes and inspect damaged infrastructure while evacuation centres were made ready. Marcos said national agencies were mobilising to support Mindanao, but the scale of damage was still being assessed during the event date.
Alerts spread beyond the Philippines
The quake was felt well beyond southern Mindanao. Strong tremors reached Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, about 420 kilometres from the affected Philippine coast, and residents also reported shaking in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces.
Tsunami alerts led authorities to tell residents of exposed coastal areas to move to higher ground. The warnings covered the southern Philippines, northern Indonesia and Sabah, the Malaysian state on Borneo. They were cancelled after more than six hours, with no damaging tsunami established in the supplied reports.
The differing early casualty figures underline that the situation was developing. The initial discovery note listed 35 deaths, more than 200 injuries and 12 missing, but the more detailed contemporaneous report carried the later preliminary count of 37 deaths, 479 injuries and four missing. Those figures remained subject to official verification as rescue and inspection work continued.
The Philippines sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic boundaries produce frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. That background explains the country’s extensive disaster planning, but the June 8 quake still created a multi-country emergency: severe structural damage near General Santos City, mass displacement across Mindanao and precautionary evacuations along coastlines hundreds of kilometres away.
