Rescuers desperately search for survivors of earthquake in the Philippines that killed at least 72

BOGO, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers used backhoes and sniffer dogs to look for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the central Philippines after an earthquake killed at least 72 people and injured more than 200 others.

The death toll was expected to rise from the 6.9 magnitude quake that hit about 10 p.m. Tuesday and trapped an unspecified number of residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province. Sporadic rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to save lives.

On Wednesday night, rescuers in orange and yellow hard hats used spotlights, a backhoe and bare hands to sift through the rubble of concrete slabs, broken wood and twisted iron bars for hours in a collapsed building in Bogo city. No survivor was found.

“We’re still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a Wednesday morning news briefing in Manila, the country's capital. “There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.”

The earthquake occurred at a dangerously shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles) and was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where officials reported about half of the known deaths.

The Philippine government is considering whether to seek help from foreign governments based on an ongoing rapid damage assessment, Alejandro said.

Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, Bogo city disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press early Wednesday.

“It’s hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” said Glenn Ursal, another disaster mitigation officer, who added that some survivors were brought to a hospital from the mountain village.

Deaths also were reported from the outlying towns of Medellin and San Remigio, where three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child were killed separately by collapsing walls and falling debris while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game in a sports complex that was disrupted by the quake, town officials said.

The earthquake was one of the most powerful to batter the central region in more than a decade and it struck while many people slept or were at home.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines of Cebu and the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran, but the warning was lifted within hours with no waves reported.

Still, thousands of traumatized residents refused to return home and chose to stay in open grassy fields and parks overnight despite intermittent rains.

Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a tropical storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead mostly due to drownings and falling trees, knocking out power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Schools and government offices were closed in the quake-hit cities and towns while the safety of buildings were checked. More than 600 aftershocks have been detected after Tuesday night’s temblor, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Teresito Bacolcol said.

Rain-soaked mountainsides were more susceptible to land- and mudslides in a major earthquake, he warned.

“This was really traumatic to people. They’ve been lashed by a storm then jolted by an earthquake,” Bacolcol said. “I don’t want to experience what they’ve gone through.”

The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.

Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

Rescuers check for survivors from the ruins of a collapsed building, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after a strong earthquake struck Bogo city, Cebu Province, Central Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Rescuers bring down a body they recovered from the ruins of a collapsed building, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after a strong earthquake struck Bogo city, Cebu Province, Central Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Rescuers check for survivors in the ruins of a collapsed building, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after a strong earthquake struck Bogo city, Cebu Province, Central Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Bodies of victims of an earthquake lay outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

A man injured in an earthquake is seen outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

People grieve after identifying the body of a victim outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Rescuers search for survivors underneath rubble in Bogo, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A man rests beside bodies of victims of an earthquake outside Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City, Philippines, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Medical workers load a resident into an ambulance as others stay outside buildings after a strong earthquake struck Cebu city, central Philippines, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Patients wait outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital Bogo City after a strong earthquake struck in Bogo city, Cebu province, central Philippines, Wednesday Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo)

Patients wait outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital Bogo City after a strong earthquake struck in Bogo city, Cebu province, central Philippines on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo)

People surround a body bag in Bogo City, Cebu province, Philippines Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after an offshore earthquake on late Tuesday. (AP Photo)

People look at a collapsed building in Bogo City, Cebu province, Philippines Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 after an offshore earthquake on late Tuesday. (AP Photo)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The bodies of 15 Indian tourists who were killed when a speedboat capsized off southern Vietnam last week were being returned home Monday.

The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four Vietnamese crew members when it overturned near the shore Saturday afternoon, shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai island near Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island, authorities said.

The boat's captain, Nguyen Hong Hai, 57, is under investigation for alleged violations of waterway transport safety regulations, state media reported.

The flight carrying the remains from Ho Chi Minh City would arrive in Mumbai late Monday, the Indian Embassy in Hanoi said on social media. It said the home states were asked to coordinate further travel. Ten of the dead were from Tamil Nadu state, three from Andhra Pradesh and two from Kerala.

Lava International, a smartphone and consumer electronics manufacturer, based in Noida city in Uttar Pradesh, said the group was on a company trip for its employees, distributors and retail partners.

The company says it sells its products through a network of more than 165,000 retailers and over 1,000 distributors across India and exports its products across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The embassy previously said 16 survivors were released from the hospital and were returning to India. One remained in critical condition in a Vietnamese hospital.

Hon May Rut island is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Phu Quoc, one of Vietnam’s most popular beach destinations. Both are known for their white sandy beaches and clear waters, drawing millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year.

India is one of Vietnam’s fastest-growing tourism markets.

Exterior of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health's Forensic Center, where remains of Indian tourists who died after a speedboat capsized are kept, in in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Minh Tran)

Investigators with crew members involved in the speedboat incident in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (VNA/Tran Van Si)