Philippines quake death toll rises

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines rose to at least 69 yesterday, a disaster official said, with scores of injured patients overwhelming hospitals on Cebu island.

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Injured children cried and adults screamed while being treated on beds beneath tents outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital, having been wheeled outside as a precaution against waves of aftershocks overnight.

They are survivors of the shallow magnitude 6.9 quake that struck late on Tuesday off Cebu island’s north near Bogo, a city of 90 000 people, according to the US Geological Survey.