An offshore earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 rocked Surigao del Sur province in the southern Philippines late Saturday night, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
The institute said the earthquake, which occurred at 10:37 p.m. local time (GMT 1437), hit at a depth of eight km, about 42 km northeast of Hinatuan town. The tremor also rattled the nearby provinces.
The institute warned of destructive tsunamis with life threatening wave heights of more than one meter above normal tides.
Residents living in the coastal areas of Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces are "strongly advised to immediately evacuate to higher grounds or move farther inland," the institute added.
Earlier, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured the earthquake at 7.7 magnitude.
The archipelagic Philippines has frequent seismic activities due to its location along the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
