Rescuers comb through rubble after 69 killed in Philippines earthquake

Rescuers in the Philippines searched through mud and rubble yesterday after the deadliest earthquake in more than a decade killed at least 69 people, with patients overwhelming hospitals on the island of Cebu.

- Oliver Holmes

Injured children cried and adults screamed as they were treated on beds beneath tents outside the Cebu provincial hospital. They had been wheeled outside as a precaution against aftershocks overnight.

The shallow, magnitude-6.9 quake struck late on Tuesday in the north of Cebu, near Bogo, a city of 90,000 people, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

The agency said that by yesterday evening more than 700 aftershocks had been recorded, although most were minor. "These aftershocks could persist for several days to weeks," Phivolcs said.