Strong quake shakes northern Philippines; no tsunami warning

A strong earthquake rocked the northern Philippines late on Tuesday, but officials said no serious damage was expected and no tsunami warning was issued.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.4 quake was centred 16.2 kilometres (10 miles) below the surface about 11 kilometres (7 miles) from Dolores on Luzon island.

The US Tsunami Warning System said no warning or advisory was issued.

The quake was felt across a wide area of northern Luzon, but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it did not expect any major damage.

The Philippine archipelago lies on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the world's most disaster-prone.

In July, a magnitude 7 earthquake set off landslides and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines, killing at least five people and injuring dozens.

A magnitude 7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.