A 6.9-magnitude quake struck off the coast of the central Philippines on Tuesday evening, damaging buildings and roads and knocking out power in parts of the region, as rescuers searched for possible casualties.

Municipal workers checked a collapsed public building and a gym, both in the north of the island of Cebu, hours after the quake struck at sea off its northern tip at 9:59 pm (1359 GMT), provincial rescue official Wilson Ramos said.

“There could be people trapped beneath collapsed buildings,” he told AFP, citing rescue efforts underway in the town of San Remigio and Bogo, a city near the epicentre with 90,000 residents. He said he did not know how many people are missing.

Recovery efforts were being hampered by the dark as well as aftershocks, he added. The US Geological Service has recorded four quakes of magnitude 5.0 or higher in the area following the first tremor.

The local seismology office warned of a possible “minor sea-level disturbance” and urged residents of the central islands of Leyte, Cebu and Biliran to “stay away from the beach and not to go to the coast”.

Cebu firefighter Joey Leeguid told AFP from San Fernando town: “We felt the shake here in our station, it was so strong. We saw our locker moving from left to right, we felt slightly dizzy for a while, but we are all fine now.”

Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan, also near the epicentre, said he was at the town square near a church, which was damaged by the quake.

“I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church, then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily, no one got hurt,” he told AFP.

“I was in shock and in panic at the same time but my body couldn’t move, I was just there waiting for the shake to stop.”

Power outage

Agnes Merza, a carer based in Bantayan, said her kitchen tiles had cracked.

“It felt as though we would all fall down. It’s the first time I have experienced it. The neighbours all ran out of their homes. My two teenage assistants hid under a table because that’s what they were taught in the boy scouts,” the 65-year-old told AFP.

The Cebu provincial government reported a commercial building and a school in Bantayan had collapsed, while a number of village roads had also sustained damage.

The quake caused power lines to trip, leading to outages across Cebu and nearby central islands, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said in an advisory, adding it was still assessing the extent of the damage.

In a live video message on her official Facebook account, Cebu provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro urged residents to “stay calm and move to open areas; keep away from walls or structures that may collapse and stay alert for aftershocks.”

She said the provincial government was assessing the situation and reaching out to municipal officials.

The USGS had reported a magnitude reading of 7.0, before revising it down, while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami threat from the earthquake.

Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random, with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.

US President Donald Trump said that he considered the praise extended to him by Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir as an “honour”.

Speaking to US military leaders on Tuesday, Trump said that the Pakistani Field Marshal had lauded his role in stopping the Pakistan-India war, which ultimately saved millions of lives.

“He said if the war had taken place, it would have been much worse,” Trump noted. The US president added that Field Marshal Munir’s remarks had left a positive impression on him. “I really liked his comment,” Trump remarked.

Trump further said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Munir had made these observations in the presence of others, including two generals, adding weight to his words.

His statement came after his meetings with the army chief twice.

In July, Trump and COAS Munir met over lunch at the White House Cabinet Room, where the field marshal acknowledged President Trump’s statesmanship and his ability to comprehend and address the multifaceted challenges faced by the global community.

Their second meeting was held earlier this month, as Trump, PM Shehbaz Sharif, and Field Marshal Munir held a meeting at the White House.

Prime Minister expressed his “deep admiration” for United States President Trump, describing him as a “man of peace” engaged in sincere efforts to end conflicts around the world.

Speaking during a warm and cordial meeting with President Trump at the Oval Office, the prime minister said the US leader’s bold, courageous, and decisive actions had helped facilitate the ceasefire between Pakistan and India, thereby averting what he called a potential “major catastrophe” in South Asia, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office read.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the US military must fix “decades of decay” as he addressed a rare gathering of hundreds of senior officers summoned from around the world to hear him speak near Washington.

The wide-ranging 45-minute speech comes as the military has faced controversy both at home and abroad, with President Donald Trump deploying troops in two Democratic-run US cities and ordering lethal strikes on small, alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Trump, who has overseen a rare purge of senior officers after taking office, has also ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels.

“This speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden,” Hegseth said, as he strode a stage in front of a massive American flag.

“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the ‘Woke Department’. But not anymore,” he said.

Hegseth declared an end to “ideological garbage,” citing concerns over climate change, bullying, “toxic” leaders and promotions based on race or gender as examples.

He also took aim at the Pentagon’s inspector general— which is investigating his conduct— saying the office “has been weaponised, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”

Trump was due to address the gathering of top officers later in the morning.

Shakeups at Pentagon

Amid speculation over reasons for gathering all the top brass in one place, Vice President JD Vance insisted it was “actually not unusual at all,” and told reporters “it’s odd that you guys have made it into such a big story.”

The Pentagon only said last week that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders,” and the lack of clarity over what would occur fed speculation that a major announcement.

In May, Hegseth ordered major cuts to the number of general and flag officers in the US military, including at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals.

That came after the Pentagon announced in February that it aimed to reduce the number of its civilian employees by at least five percent.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has also purged top officers, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.

Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the leaders of the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to Nato, and three top military lawyers.

Hegseth defended the firings on Tuesday, saying: “It’s nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create—or even benefited from—that culture.”

US forces carried out a nearly two-month-long campaign of strikes targeting Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels earlier this year and also hit three nuclear sites that were a key part of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

And US troops have also been deployed in Los Angeles and Washington— allegedly to combat civil unrest and crime—while similar moves are planned for Portland, Memphis and potentially other cities.