knocked out power and prompted evacuations of coastal areas nearby due to an initially feared tsunami.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has said that the tsunami threat has now passed. Small waves were detected on the Indonesian and Philippine coasts on Friday after the earthquake. The Philippines and some regions of Indonesia had issued a tsunami warning, urging coastal communities to evacuate after the quake struck offshore in the southern Philippines.

The tsunami centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, said that while the threat had passed about two hours after the quake, small sea fluctuations may continue. Damage from the earthquake was still being assessed. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, facing his latest natural disaster after a recent earthquake killed more than 70 people and back-to-back storms, said that the Philippine government was “assessing the situation on the ground and ensuring that everyone is safe”.

“I have directed the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the Office of Civil Defense, the Armed Forces, the Philippine Coast Guard, and all concerned agencies to immediately carry out evacuations in coastal areas, activate emergency communication lines, and coordinate closely with local governments,” Marcos said, according to the Inquirer, a leading media organisation in the Philippines. The strong quake struck at a depth of 23 kilometres (14 miles) at 9:43am local time (01:43 GMT) on Friday, according to the US National Tsunami Warning Center.

The centre had initially warned the earthquake could trigger waves of up to 1-3 metres above tide level along the coast of the Philippines, and waves of 0.3 to 1 metre above tide level in parts of Indonesia and Palau. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology “strongly advised” people living in coastal communities in the southern and central Philippines to evacuate to higher ground, as waves of more than 1 metre were expected to hit the area. Indonesia’s northern Sulawesi and Papua regions had also issued tsunami warnings that waves as high as 50cm (1.6ft) could hit coastal areas, according to Reuters.

That warning has now been lifted, according to the country’s geophysics agency on Friday.

At least two people died after being pinned in damaged houses in Davao Oriental, in the Philippines provincial Governor Nelson Dayanghirang Sr told ABS-CBN News Channel, adding that about 250 patients were evacuated from a damaged hospital and would be temporarily housed in tents. Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said several buildings sustained cracks in their walls, including an international airport in Davao City, but it remained operational without any flights being cancelled, Alejandro said.

“I was driving my car when it suddenly swayed and I saw powerlines swaying wildly. People darted out of houses and buildings as the ground shook and electricity came off,” Jun Saavedra, a disaster mitigation officer of Governor Generoso town in Davao Oriental, told The Associated Press news agency by phone. (Al Jazeera)