Dozens died on the island of Bohol, 15 in nearby Cebu and one on the neighboring island of Siquijor, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council. The island of Cebu, which is adjacent to Bohol, where the earthquake was centered, experienced extensive damage and injuries because it is more heavily populated, officials said.

Those who died included a 4-year-old girl who was trampled in the town of Toledo, on Cebu, when the earthquake shook a building where people were receiving cash grants from a government program to help the poor. In addition to the child who died, 19 people were injured there during a stampede out of the wobbling structure.

Officials on Tuesday afternoon were warning local residents to keep out of major buildings until their structural integrity could be verified. They also warned of landslides amid reports of aftershocks on the two most affected islands.

Electric power was disrupted in many of the affected areas. No tsunami warning was issued because the earthquake was land-based, an official of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said during a morning news briefing.

President Benigno S. Aquino III will visit the affected areas on Wednesday, a spokesman said. The islands of Cebu and Bohol have been declared in a state of calamity by the government, which authorizes additional national government assistance to the areas.

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the same island on Feb. 8, 1990, and damaged more than 3,000 houses. Last year, a magnitude 6.9 quake hit near the island of Negros, also in the central Philippines, and killed nearly 100 people.