Earthquake of magnitude 5.6 strikes Mindanao, Philippines: GFZ

MANILA (REUTERS)

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Mindanao, Philippines, on Saturday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said.

The quake was 10km deep, GFZ said.

The Philippine seismology agency had a different reading, saying it was a magnitude 5.9 earthquake with a depth of 27km. The Philippine agency also said in a bulletin it was expecting no damage, but that there could be aftershocks.

Rescue workers searching for dozens of missing people in an earlier landslide in Maco town in the southern Philippines province of Davao de Oro had to stop their operations because of the earthquake, authorities said.

The death toll from the landslide, which happened on Tuesday night outside a gold mining site, has reached 28, with 77 still missing and 32 injured, including a 3-year-old girl rescued on Friday after 60 hours under rubble.

Torrential rains have battered Davao de Oro in recent weeks, triggering floods and landslides.