Residents in the southern Philippines are returning to their homes after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck, killing at least one person, with disaster officials reporting minor damage to some infrastructure.
The Saturday night quake shook parts of Surigao Del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces, triggering coastal evacuations and tsunami alerts in the Philippines and Japan.
A woman was killed when a wall collapsed as she and her family were fleeing their home in search of safety in Tagum city in Davao del Norte province, disaster official Mon Cabonilas said.
"The tsunami threat associated with this earthquake has now largely passed the Philippines," the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in a statement on Sunday but advised people in threatened communities to heed instructions from local authorities.
In the coastal town of Carrascal in Surigao del Sur, all evacuees have returned to their homes, disaster official Antonio told DWPM radio.
"We are ready in case there is a need to evacuate again," he said.
More than 600 aftershocks were recorded, and Phivolcs urged caution as people resumed normal activities.
The Philippine Coast Guard put all its vessels and aircraft on alert for potential dispatch.
"We started going back to our homes early on Sunday, although we are still shaking because of aftershocks," Julita Bicap, 51, a front desk staffer at GLC Suites hotel in the seaside town of Bislig, said on Sunday morning after power was restored.
"There are aftershocks even now," Bicap told Reuters, adding that she noticed a small crack in the hotel's front wall.
"Last night we were at the evacuation centre, including my two foreigner guests.
"One of them came back to the hotel already,"
Authorities recorded minor damage to homes, while the aviation agency reported minor cracks on wall tiles in some regional airports.
The strongest aftershock was magnitude 6.5, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
Earthquakes are common in the Philippines, which lies on the "Ring of Fire", a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is prone to seismic activity.
Philvolcs' Hinatuan-Bislig Bay station recorded maximum waves of 0.64 metres.
Japan's Hachijojima island, some 290km south of Tokyo, recorded waves of 40cm, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The United States Tsunami Warning System had initially forecast waves of up to three metres above the usual high tide level.
The quake, which struck at 10.37pm (1437 GMT) on Saturday, was at a depth of 25km, Philvolcs said.
James Soria, who owns a small hotel in Hinatuan, said there had been significant damage to his home.
"It's shaking again here now," he told Reuters before the call was disconnected as another aftershock hit.
