Quake in Philippines kills 5, buries homes

5:53 AM, Feb 6, 2012   |    comments
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MANILA, Philippines -- Dozens of houses are buried after a strong, 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the Philippines that killed at least five people and left 29 others missing.

The quake destroyed buildings and triggered landslides, trapping residents.

The quake caused a landslide in a city of about 180,000 people. As many as 30 houses were buried.

The mayor says four people died there, including a student at a college and two others in an elementary school. Another person died in the collapse of a town market. A child in another town died when a concrete wall collapsed.

An unknown number of people were trapped by a landslide in a mountain village

One official says people could be heard yelling for help for a time.

Philippine seismologists briefly issued a tsunami alert for the central islands.

(Associated Press)