As an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 rattled the San Francisco Bay Area in the US, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter to share an alert and "hope everyone is ok". Authorities have not reported any injuries yet.
"The alert came just before, felt like a long one, hope everyone is ok," tweeted Pichai referring to the earthquake alert.
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A 3.1 aftershock followed about five minutes later, according to the US Geological Survey.
Nearly 100,000 people reported receiving a warning before the shaking started through California’s earthquake early warning system, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.
“Advance notice varied from two seconds for those very near the epicenter to 18 seconds for those in San Francisco,” the agency said.
Apart from the US, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the northern Philippines, the US Geological Service said, sending panicked residents out into the streets and causing substantial damage to a hospital.
The quake, caused by a movement of the earth's crust, struck around 10:59 pm (1459 GMT) near the upland town of Dolores.
Staff said they evacuated patients from the 200-bed Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital in Batac city, about 60 kilometres north of the epicentre, which sustained some of the worst known damage thus far.
Photos of collapsed ceilings in some of the hospital rooms, as well as dozens of patients sat on chairs on the driveway outside were posted on the local fire service's official Facebook page.
(With inputs from agencies)
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