This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the central Philippine island of Bohol on Tuesday has risen to 110 as rescuers struggled to reach patients in a collapsed hospital. Centuries-old stone churches crumbled and wide areas were without power.

The Bohol police chief, Dennis Agustin, said 77 of the deaths were in the province, where the quake hit near the town of Carmen. At least 15 died in nearby Cebu province and another on Siquijor island.

The quake struck at 8.12am and was centred about 20 miles (33km) below Carmen on Bohol island, where many buildings collapsed, roads split and bridges fell.

There was also extensive damage to densely populated Cebu city, separated by a narrow strait from Bohol. A number of people died when a building in the port and the roof of a market collapsed.

Filipinos react from an aftershock following the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Cebu city. Photograph: Dennis M Sabangan/EPA

The quake also sparked two stampedes. Five people were crushed to death and eight injured when a crowd rushed to evacuate a gym in Cebu, said provincial disaster management officer Neil Sanchez.

"We ran out of the building, and outside, we hugged trees because the tremors were so strong," said Vilma Yorong, a government employee in Bohol.

"When the shaking stopped, I ran to the street and there I saw several injured people. Some were saying their church has collapsed," she told the Associated Press by phone.

The closure of offices and schools for the national Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha is thought to have saved many lives.

Tuesday's quake was deeper below the surface than the 6.9-magnitude quake last year in waters near Negros island, also in the central Philippines, which killed nearly 100 people.