6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes northern Philippines

An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude struck northern Philippines on Thursday, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said. As per GFZ, the earthquake struck Mindoro island in the northern Philippines.

The depth of the earthquake was 10 kilometers (6.21 miles), it added. 

As per US Geological Survey, the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.2. The earthquake struck at a depth of 124 kilometres (77 miles) at about 10:00 am (0200 GMT) in waters off Calatagan municipality in Batangas province near the capital Manila, USGS said.

The Philippine seismology agency said it also recorded a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, and expects damage and aftershocks, as reported by Reuters.

Quakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In October 2013, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Bohol Island in the central Philippines, triggering landslides and killing more than 200 people.

Old churches in the birthplace of Catholicism in the Philippines were badly damaged. Nearly 400,000 were displaced and tens of thousands of houses were damaged due to the quake.

(More details awaited)