Viral visuals show earthquake tremors in the Philippines

WHAT HAPPENED

A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Philippines on June 8, 2026, killing at least 35 people, injuring over 134, and leaving several others missing as buildings collapsed, landslides buried homes, and strong aftershocks continued to shake the region. Tsunami warnings also triggered mass evacuations before being lifted.

Major damage was reported in Mindanao, particularly in General Santos and Sarangani province, where schools, shops, hospitals and parts of the airport were damaged or destroyed. Rescue operations remained underway amid communication outages and fears of additional aftershocks, while President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered immediate disaster response efforts and evacuations.

Subsequently, several X users shared videos showing the destruction caused by the quake, including buildings collapsing and people running and screaming in panic. The clips sparked debate online, with many users questioning whether the visuals were authentic or AI-generated.

One user wrote: “We just got hit by a 7.8 earthquake yesterday, and then some people are like: ‘Nope. That’s just AI’.”

Another user questioned the authenticity of the footage: “I hope everyone stays safe, okay? But wait, is it really true?” Similar comments were made by other people on the social media platform as well.

WHAT WE FOUND

The viral video circulating online was a compilation of multiple visuals from different locations affected by the earthquake. To investigate the video, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted reverse image searches on key frames from the video.

The search for the first visual yielded a video published by BBC on June 6, 2026, which contained similar scenes of a restaurant collapsing. The video was captioned: “Jollibee restaurant collapses in southern Philippines city after earthquake.”

Reuters also posted the same clip on its Facebook account, dated June 9.

Another reverse image search yielded a report published by The Sydney Morning Herald dated June 8, 2026, which covered the Philippines earthquake. The report included visuals matching those seen in the viral video.

A separate clip from the viral compilation was also found in CBS News’ coverage of the earthquake.

The findings confirmed that the visuals circulating online were genuine and related to the ongoing earthquake in the Philippines.

However, research showed that such visuals are not unprecedented. Similar scenes of collapsing buildings and large-scale destruction were also witnessed during the powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Russia in 2025.

The Philippines is one of the most seismically active countries on the planet. It sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a roughly 40,000-kilometre horseshoe-shaped belt around the Pacific Ocean where 75 per cent of the world’s earthquakes and 90pc of its volcanoes occur, according to an Al Jazeera report.

In October 2025, two powerful offshore earthquakes struck the same region of the southern Philippines hours apart. The first, a 7.4-magnitude tremor, killed at least seven people. The second registered 6.8 and also sparked a local tsunami warning, according to the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre.

CONCLUSION

Yes, visuals circulating online of the devastating earthquake that struck the Philippines on June 8, 2026, are true.

EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES:

June 8, 2026, BBC report:

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c20y4xp43ywt

June 9, 2026, Reuters Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/Reuters/videos/a-building-housing-a-jollibee-fast-food-restaurant-collapsed-in-the-southern-phi/1938766723484507/

June 8, 2026, The Sydney Morning Herald news report:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/7-8-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-part-of-southern-philippines-20260608-p604v2.html

June 8, 2026, CBN News report:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/philippines-could-see-aftershocks-long-after-powerful-earthquake/

October 10, 2025, Al Jazeera report:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/10/tsunami-warning-after-7-4-earthquake-off-philippines-what-we-know

October 10, 2025, Asian Disaster Reduction Centre report:
https://www.adrc.asia/view_disaster_en.php?NationCode=608&Lang=en&Key=2785#:\~:text=An earthquake of magnitude 7.4,the coast of Mindanao Island

Header image: Police gather in front of a collapsed Jollibee fast food restaurant after an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in General Santos City, southern Philippines, on June 8, 2026. — AFP

This article is part of an iVerify initiative tackling myths and disinformation around climate, supported by Irada and IMS