A magnitude 6.4 earthquake jolted the northern Philippines, injuring 26 people and damaging houses and public infrastructure, government agencies said on Wednesday.

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, the tremor struck at 10:59 p.m. (1459 GMT) on Tuesday near Lagayan town in Abra province, 348 kilometres north of Manila.

The institute said it had an initial magnitude of 6.7 but was later downgraded to 6.4.

According to an initial assessment, power was cut in some affected provinces, while houses and buildings were damaged.

A hospital in nearby Ilocos Norte province was evacuated after the ceiling collapsed, photos shared by the Bureau of Fire Protection on Facebook showed.

A call centre agent posted a video of colleagues screaming and ducking under tables as their building violently shook and lights went out during the quake.

“Thank you, Lord, we are all safe, and we were able to get out,” Joffrey Castro Lavarias said in his post.

The national disaster agency said some roads were impassable due to rock slides or cracks.

The Philippines is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where about 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur.

One of the strongest quakes to hit the country was in July 1990, when more than 2,400 people were killed on the northern island of Luzon in a 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

(dpa/NAN)