The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck the southern Philippines earlier this week has risen to 61, as search and rescue teams continued operations in the hardest-hit areas of Mindanao.
The Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said on Saturday that the deaths increased after additional bodies were recovered in affected areas.
The GMA News broadcaster said 33 people are missing while 1,221 have been injured.
Authorities indicated that search, rescue and retrieval operations are ongoing as emergency crews continue to look for survivors and recover victims trapped by landslides and collapsed structures.
The Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Centre (DROMIC) reported that the earthquake affected 553,068 people in the Mindanao region.
About 9,393 people are staying in evacuation centres, while 54,274 have sought temporary shelter with relatives and friends outside official evacuation facilities, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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