Death toll in strong quake rises to 40
At least 40 persons, including a nine-year-old girl, died in Negros Oriental during the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit the province and other areas shortly before noon Monday, local authorities here said.
The quake hit 70 kilometers (44 miles) north of the city of Dumaguete on Negros Island at 11:49 am (0349 GMT) at a depth of 46 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.
The Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) measured it as 6.9 at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers, centered off the heavily populated central island province of Negros and Cebu.
Meanwhile, the US Geological Survey website placed the epicenter of the earthquake at 46.6 kilometers deep, some 72 kilometers north of Dumaguete City, 74 km west, northwest of Tagbilaran, Bohol and 80 km west, southwest of Cebu City.
The earthquake was the strongest to be ever felt in Negros Oriental, according to several residents here.
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