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When a 6.3 magnitude earthquake slammed into the Philippines on Monday, closing Manila’s main airport and sending office workers fleeing, the violent swaying emptied an entire rooftop swimming pool over the side of a high-rise apartment building and into the street below.

The quake struck north-west of the capital Manila, disrupting flights at Manila’s Clark International Airport, stranding travellers and heavily damaging houses, churches, roads and bridges. Rescuers discovered more bodies last night in the rubble of a supermarket, raising the death toll to 16.

The number of dead and injured is expected to rise, and the quake that struck the northern Philippine island of Luzon was followed yesterday by an even more powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake on the central Philippine island of Samar.

In Manila, thousands of office workers ran from buildings in panic as the earth swayed with waves like a storm at sea. Some of those fleeing were drenched, as a swimming pool full of water cascaded from the top of a penthouse apartment block, as shown in the 30-second video below.

Clark International Airport closed temporarily when ceilings crashed down on check-in counters. An official said seven people at the airport received minor injuries and over 100 flights were cancelled.

The Philippines lies on a seismically active arc of volcanos and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire”. The country suffers frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

News of the latest quakes was eclipsed by the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.

Written by Peter Needham