The local seismology office warned of a possible "minor sea-level disturbance" and urged residents of the central islands of Leyte, Cebu and Biliran to "stay away from the beach and not to go to the coast".

The epicentre of the quake was at sea off the northern tip of Cebu island and near Bogo, a city of more than 90,000 people, according to a Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, adding it expected both damage and aftershocks.

Cebu firefighter Joey Leeguid told AFP from San Fernando town: "We felt the shake here in our station, it was so strong. We saw our locker moving from left to right, we felt slightly dizzy for a while but we are all fine now."

Martham Pacilan, a 25-year-old resident of the resort town of Bantayan, near the epicentre, said he was at the town square near a church when the quake struck.

"I heard a loud booming noise from the direction of the church then I saw rocks falling from the structure. Luckily no one got hurt," he told AFP.

"I was in shock and in panic at the same time but my body couldn't move, I was just there waiting for the shake to stop."

Agnes Merza, a carer based in Bantayan, said her kitchen tiles had cracked.

"It felt as though we would all fall down. It's the first time I have experienced it. The neighbours all ran out of their homes. My two teenage assistants hid under a table because that's what they were taught in the boy scouts," the 65-year-old told AFP.

The USGS had reported a magnitude reading of 7.0, before revising it down.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said "there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake" and "no action is required".

Quakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random, with no technology available to predict when and where they might strike.