At least six people have been killed and dozens more injured after two earthquakes struck a province in the Philippines.
Damage to the Sta Maria de Mayan Church after a pair of strong earthquakes of magnitude 5.4 and 5.9 struck the Philippines within hours of each other. Photo: AFP
The earthquakes, magnitudes 5.4 and 5.9, hit the province of Batanes, an archipelago in the north of the country early on Saturday.
Mayor Raul de Sagon said around 60 people were hurt. Many people were in their homes when the earthquakes struck.
No tsunami warnings have been issued.
Police sergeant Uzi Villa told AFP: "We saw houses shaking. Some of the walls of the houses collapsed and fell on the victims. Some people died because they were sleeping soundly since it was still early."
Images posted to social media by the Philippine Red Cross show houses reduced to rubble.
BBC reporter Howard Johnson said the country's northernmost inhabited island of Itbayat had been affected as well as the archipeligo of Batanes.
"Today's earthquake affected many of the island's Spanish colonial era buildings, including the bell tower of the Catholic Santa Maria Church."
Locals have been helping to clear rubble from affected buildings, he said.
The Philippines is part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" - a zone of major seismic activity which has one of the world's most active fault lines.
