- Death toll. At least 35 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off southern Mindanao on 7 June 2026, the Philippines’ deadliest seismic event in years.
- Fact. Tsunami waves up to 1.4 metres struck coastal villages; the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted the regional threat roughly five hours after the quake, but advisories for Japan’s southern coast remained in place for hours longer.
- Stake. General Santos City, a commercial hub of 722,000 people, sustained direct hits to a hospital, a university and a Jollibee restaurant building that collapsed entirely — exposing the limits of building codes in fast-growing Philippine cities.
The earthquake struck at 7:40 a.m. local time on Sunday, originating offshore of Mindanao, according to the United States Geological Survey. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology logged more than an hour of continuous aftershock activity, with at least one aftershock reaching magnitude 6.5.
Collapse and evacuation in General Santos
General Santos City bore the heaviest structural damage. A three-storey building housing a Jollibee franchise collapsed, and St Elizabeth Hospital sustained severe structural damage, forcing the evacuation of patients and staff. Partial collapses were also reported at Notre Dame of Dadiangas University. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology rated shaking in the city as “very strong” on its internal scale. School closures ordered across affected zones left an estimated 3.2 million students and 128,000 school personnel displaced on what would have been the first day of term.
Tsunami reaches coastal villages
The USGS issued a tsunami warning covering parts of the Asia-Pacific region within minutes of the initial tremor. Waves reaching up to 1.4 metres were recorded along coastal sections of southern Mindanao and adjacent islands. Indonesia and the Philippines lifted their own warnings by mid-afternoon local time; Japan’s southern islands remained under advisory for several additional hours. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center declared the broader regional threat largely past approximately five hours after the quake struck. At least 17 of the fatalities came from a landslide triggered by the shaking in a southern province, according to reporting by Sun.Star.
Rescue and regional response
Philippine authorities deployed national disaster response units to Mindanao and imposed emergency protocols in General Santos and surrounding municipalities. The death toll, confirmed at 32 by Al Jazeera and at least 35 by CBS News, remained in flux as rescue teams reached outlying barangays cut off by the landslide. Regional governments in Indonesia and Japan confirmed no fatalities from tsunami inundation on their coasts.