(NYT) – The Philippines was hit by a powerful earthquake on Tuesday afternoon, a day after a deadly tremor hit the north of the country. The earthquake on Tuesday registered a magnitude of 6.4 and was centered in Samar, an island in the central eastern part of the country, the United States Geological Survey said. The location is about 375 miles southeast of the magnitude-6.1 earthquake Monday that killed at least 16 people and shook buildings in Manila, the capital.
Rescuers in a town near Manila were still searching on Tuesday for people trapped in a supermarket that collapsed in the Monday quake. At least five people died in the collapsed store, officials said. The Philippines, which sits at the intersection of multiple tectonic plates, sees frequent seismic activity and sometimes deadly earthquakes. Officials from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the two earthquakes this week did not appear to be connected. READ MORE
