Scenes showing damages, injuries and chaos in the streets of Cebu following a magnitude-6.9 earthquake that jolted parts of the island, in Cebu, Philippines, on Sept. 30, 2025. HANDOUT/CEBU GOVERNOR'S OFFICE/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

At least 69 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit a central Philippine province Tuesday night.

The magnitude-6.9 quake hit at about 10 p.m. and trapped an unspecified number of residents in collapsed houses, nightclubs and other businesses in the hard-hit coastal city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province, officials said.

Rescuers scrambled to find survivors Wednesday. Army troops, police and civilian volunteers backed by backhoes and sniffer dogs were deployed to carry out house-to-house searches for survivors.

Bogo is a city of about 90,000 people. About half the deaths were reported there, officials said.

The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise, according to officials, who said intermittent rain and damaged bridges and roads were hampering the race to save lives.

"We're still in the golden hour of our search and rescue," Office of Civil Defense Deputy Administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a news briefing. "There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris."

The Philippine government is considering whether to seek help from foreign governments based on an ongoing rapid damage assessment, Alejandro said.

Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, Bogo city disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press early Wednesday.

"It's hard to move in the area because there are hazards," said Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer, who added that some survivors were brought to a hospital from the mountain village.

Deaths also were reported from the outlying towns of Medellin and San Remigio, where three coast guard personnel, a firefighter and a child were killed by collapsing walls and falling debris while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game in a sports complex that was disrupted by the quake, town officials said.

The quake was one of the most powerful to batter the central region in more than a decade and struck while many people slept or were at home.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning and advised people to stay away from the coastlines of Cebu and the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran due to possible waves of up to 3 feet.

No such waves were reported and the tsunami warning was lifted more than three hours later, but thousands of traumatized residents refused to return home and chose to stay in open grassy fields and parks overnight despite intermittent rains.

Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a tropical storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead, mostly from drownings and falling trees, knocking out power in entire cities and towns and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Schools and government offices were closed in the quake-hit cities and towns while the safety of buildings was checked. More than 600 aftershocks have been detected after Tuesday night's shaker, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology director Teresito Bacolcol said.

Rain-soaked mountainsides were more susceptible to land- and mudslides in a major earthquake, he warned.

"This was really traumatic to people. They've been lashed by a storm then jolted by an earthquake," Bacolcol said. "I don't want to experience what they've gone through."

The Philippines, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.

Residents stay on the streets on Oct. 1, 2025 near the debris of damaged buildings amid frequent aftershocks following a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that jolted parts of Bogo City, in the province of Cebu in the Philippines. DANIEL CENG / ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

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