Dramatic footage captures the moment a restaurant collapsed after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake tore through the southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 19 people and flattening buildings in a coastal city. The offshore quake struck at 7:37 a.m. local time at a depth of about six miles. General Santos, home to roughly 720,000, was hit hardest. “It’s a major earthquake,” said Teresito Bacolcol, who heads the country’s seismology agency, urging residents not to return to buildings damaged by the shock as they could still collapse. Civil aviation officials grounded 17 domestic flights and shut the General Santos airport. The city’s St. Elizabeth Hospital was reportedly so badly damaged that patients and staff have been forced to move off-site. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to provide urgent support to the affected regions. “I have directed all relevant government agencies to act immediately,” he said in a statement. “I am in constant communication with our regional offices and local chief executives on the ground.”
