An earthquake of at least magnitude 7.5 struck Mindanao in the southern Philippines late on Saturday, triggering tsunami warnings in the country and in Japan, though a US agency said the risk of large waves had passed. The US Tsunami Warning Center, which initially warned of waves of up to 3 metres (10ft) above the usual high tide level, later said there was no longer a tsunami threat. Evacuations were continuing in the Philippines, where there were no initial reports of significant wave damage or casualties despite continuing aftershocks. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Phivolcs, maintained that the risk of a tsunami remained. Waves of 40cm (1.3ft) were observed on Japan’s Hachijojima island, 290km (180 miles) south of Tokyo, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which had initially said they could reach 1 metre (3 feet) in height. Phivolcs earlier said people living near the coast of Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces should “immediately evacuate” or “move farther inland”. “Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised,” it said. The two provinces are largely rural and not densely populated, unlike other parts of the Philippines. Raymark Gentallan, the local police chief of the coastal town of Hinatuan near the earthquake’s epicentre, which has a population of about 44,000, said power has been knocked out since the quake struck, but disaster response teams had not yet monitored any casualties or damage. “We’re evacuating people away from coastal areas,” he told Reuters. 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. Photographs posted on social media by Hinatuan’s local administration showed scores of residents and queues of vehicles moving towards higher ground, with one large shelter occupied by several dozen people. 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. The EMSC said the quake of magnitude 7.5 had struck at a depth of 63km (39 miles), while the US Geographic Survey put the quake at magnitude 7.6 and a depth of 32km (20 miles), and said it had struck at 10.37pm.