Earthquake of 7.5 strikes Philippines, tsunami warnings in Philippines and Japan
An earthquake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao in the southern Philippines late on Saturday, triggering evacuation orders for some areas of the country and for southwest Japanese coasts because of warnings of tsunami waves of 1 meter (3 feet) or more The Philippine Seismology Agency Phivolcs said the waves could hit the Philippines by midnight (1600 GMT) and continue for hours, though there were no initial reports of significant wave damage by that time. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said there could be waves of up to 3 meters above the usual high tide level along some Philippine coasts, though it subsequently said there was no risk of a tsunami. "Based on all available data ... the tsunami threat from this earthquake has now passed," it said.