An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 has struck south of the Philippines capital, Manila.
The deep quake struck off Batangas province on Luzon island at 1:12am (17:12 GMT), with residents in the nearby capital of Manila woken by their buildings shaking.
A 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook the island of Crete in southern Greece on Monday morning, damaging several buildings and trapping citizens in collapsed structures with at least one person reported dead.
The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 9:17am local time (6:17am GMT), was 14 miles northwest of Arvi - roughly 153 miles southeast of Athens - and six miles deep, according to the Athens Geodynamic Institute.
One person, identified as Iakovos Tsagarakis, 65, was killed by falling debris as he was working to restore the dome of the church of the Prophet Elias in Arkalochori which caved in during the quake.
His son was one of several others injured in the collapse, but he managed to escape and call the emergency services, though he suffered several broken bones according to Protothema.
The quake sent citizens rushing out into the streets to avoid being trapped, and triggered the evacuation of schools. Around 20 people have suffered injuries with several people thought to be trapped in rubble.
Earlier the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said the earthquake reached a magnitude of 6.5, while the United States Geological Survey (USGS) put it at 6.0, but it has since been downgraded after seismologists reviewed their data.
Several aftershocks also struck the area, with the EMSC giving a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 for the strongest one.
'It's an earthquake that we did not expect, for the moment there are aftershocks of 4.5', said seismologist Efthymis Lekkas, who described the surprise quake as a 'thunderbolt'. Greece is located on a number of fault lines, and is sporadically hit by earthquakes.Local media in Crete has reported considerable damage, with collapsing walls of old stone buildings, churches, and temples in villages near the epicentre of the quake on the eastern part of the island.
Rescue operations are now underway in Arkalochori, which appears to be the worst hit by the quake, as well as the village of Patsideros.
According to the mayor of Minoa Pediados, Manolis Fraggakis, the damage in Arkalochori and the surrounding areas is significant and has affected modern buildings as well as older structures, pillars and temples.
Authorities have deployed helicopters to assess the extent of the damage and direct rescue teams, and have already received reports of significant damage to water supply networks as well as buildings.
The fire department said it was flying 30 members of its disaster response units with sniffer dogs and specialised rescue equipment to Crete, while all its disaster response units and the fire department services on Crete were placed on general alert.
Dad of two Iakovos Tsagarakis, 65 - who had recently become a grandad - has been identified as the man killed when a church dome he was working to restore collapsed.
He was one of three builders trapped under the toppled dome while renovating the church of the Prophet Elias in Arkalochori.
Neighbours said they were working at the church to repair from previous earthquakes.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the quake struck at a depth of 74km (46 miles).
The epicentre of the earthquake was in Occidental Mindoro province.
Authorities near the epicentre said they had not received any reports of damage.
“It was really strong,” Jose Clyde Yayong, a disaster officer in Tagaytay city in the neighbouring province of Cavite said. “So far there are no untoward incidents relating to the earthquake.”
Leonardo Tristan, a disaster officer in Looc town on Occidental Mindoro island, said the force of the quake sent some residents rushing outside.
“My wife was shouting ‘there’s an earthquake’,” Tristan told AFP news agency.
The Philippines is regularly rocked by quakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
