A second earthquake struck the Philippines coast within an hour, 102 kilometers northeast of San Isidro, quite near the site of the first one. The later earthquake is however milder and reported of magnitude 5.5 on the Richter scale by U.S. Geological Survey.
Initially, a tsunami alert was issued for several countries including Japan and for Pacific islands as far away as the Northern Marianas. But according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the perceived threat had dwindled and warnings have been lifted from most of them, leaving only the Philippines, Indonesia and Palau on high alert.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude 7.6, hit at a depth of 34.9 kilometers and was centered 106 kilometers east of Samar Island in central Philippines, as per reports from the U.S. Geological Survey. Manilla, the country's capital, is about 750 kilometers away from the epicenter. The Philippine seismology agency however recorded a preliminary magnitude of 7.7.
The agency has also advised residents living along the coastlines of eastern Samar and several other nearby islands to evacuate to high ground until the threat of the tsunami has passed.
The region has been hit by devastating quakes in the past decade. At least 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries were killed in a quake and tsunami off Indonesia in 2004.
Last year, an earthquake and tsunami off Japan's northeastern coast killed about 20,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years after waves battered a nuclear power station in Fukushima.