At least 85 people were killed Tuesday when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook Bohol the central island of the Philippines, toppling buildings and historic churches and sending terrified residents into deadly stampedes, Fox News reports.
Panic ensued as people spilled out on the street after the quake struck at 8:12 a.m. It was centered about 20 miles below the town of Carmen, where many buildings collapsed, roads cracked up and bridges fell.
Extensive damage also hit densely populated Cebu city, across a narrow strait from Bohol, causing deaths when a building in the port and the roof of a market area collapsed.
Officials say that at least 69 people died in Bohol, while a further 15 were killed in Cebu and scores more were injured.
Many roads and bridges were reported damaged, but historic churches dating from the Spanish colonial period suffered the most. Among them is the country’s oldest, the 16th-century Basilica of the Holy Child in Cebu, which lost its bell tower.
Nearly half of a 17th-century limestone church in Loboc town, southwest of Carmen, was reduced to rubble.
