Aftershocks rock Philippines as six hurt by strong quake

The 6.4-magnitude quake struck the mountain town of Dolores in Abra province late Tuesday, followed by numerous aftershocks over the rest of the night, the state seismology office said.

"We hid under a table and my family only went out of the house after the shaking stopped," Abra rescuer Ron Sequerra told AFP by telephone, adding his family had been woken by strong ground shaking.

Six people were injured in the Abra town of Lagayan, Sequerra added.

Pictures from the town's official Facebook page show that the mayor's office and a high school building in Lagayan were shut off after suffering cracks and broken glass panes.

After the ceiling collapsed on many rooms and destroyed equipment in the city of Batac in the neighboring province of Ilocos Norte, a number of patients spent the most of the night outdoors a government hospital, according to hospital staff.

A road connecting Batac to the neighbouring town of Banna was momentarily blocked by boulders rolling down a mountainside, but rescue workers reported that the landslide has now been removed.

The civil defense office reported that other historic churches in Abra and Ilocos Norte also suffered damage.

As the government evaluated the structural stability of buildings, Ilocos Norte governor Matthew Manotoc issued a directive instructing employees not to report for work and declaring a holiday for the school year.

According to the official tally, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the hilly Abra province in July caused landslides and ground cracks that resulted in 11 fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

The Philippines, which is located along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a region of strong seismic and volcanic activity that spans from Japan through Southeast Asia and throughout the Pacific basin, experiences earthquakes on a daily basis.