Search and rescue operations continue the day after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocked northern Luzon causing widespread damage, especially in Porac, Pampanga where a supermarket was almost levelled by the jolt.
Time magazine reported that Rescuers found more bodies overnight in the rubble of the supermarket, raising the death toll to 11, officials said.
The bodies of four victims were pulled from Chuzon Supermarket and three other villagers died due to collapsed house walls, Time magazine reported citing Porac town Mayor Condralito dela Cruz. Porac is in Pampanga, a province that’s about two hours’ drive north of Manila.
According to the Time magazine report, an Associated Press photographer saw seven people, including at least one dead, being pulled out by rescuers from the pile of concrete, twisted metal and wood overnight. Red Cross volunteers, army troops, police and villagers used four cranes, crow bars and sniffer dogs to look for the missing, some of whom were still yelling for help Monday night.
The earthquake also caused extensive damage to Clark International Airport, a former US air base also in Pampanga. In Metro Manila, panic-stricken people scampered out of swaying buildings. Ninoy Aquino International Airport went through thorough inspection while metro rail operations were suspended.
Meantime, Time magazine reported that at least 24 people have remained missing, mostly in the rubble of the collapsed Porac supermarket. Some 81 others were injured, according to the government’s disaster-response agency.
