Five people were killed when at least two buildings collapsed as a strong earthquake rocked the northern Philippines, a local official said.

Three bodies have been pulled out of a collapsed building in the town of Porac, while an old woman and her grandchild were crushed to death by another building in the town of Lubao, provincial governor Lilia Pineda told ABS-CBN television.

"The quake has caused a blackout," she said, hampering rescue efforts in the early evening as night closed in.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said it was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake.

A Reuters witness said office buildings swayed in the main business district of the capital, Manila.

The quake struck 60 km northwest of Manila at a depth of 40 km. The USGS initially said the magnitude was 6.4 but later downgraded it slightly.

Some people evacuated their offices in Manila.

The Philippines is on the seismically active Pacific 'Ring of Fire', a horse-shoe shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

SBS News

BDST: 1807 HRS, APR 22, 2019
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