The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the tsunami threat from an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 Friday off the southern Philippines has passed.
Small waves were detected on the Indonesian and Philippine coasts after the earthquake, with the highest being 170mm above tide level in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province.
The tsunami centre in Honolulu said the threat had passed about two hours after the quake but small sea fluctuations may continue.
Earlier, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the potential damage was being assessed and that rescue teams and relief operations were being prepared and would be deployed when it was safe to do so.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it was expecting damage and aftershocks from the earthquake, which was centred at sea about 62km southeast of Manay town in Davao Oriental province and was caused by movement in a fault at a shallow depth of 10km.
Children evacuated schools in Davao city, which has about 5.4 million people and is the biggest city near the epicentre, about 250km west of Davao Oriental province.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu said hazardous waves were possible within 300km of the epicentre. It said waves up to 3m above normal tides were possible on some Philippine coasts, and smaller waves were possible in Indonesia and Palau.
Office of Civil Defence deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV warned that tsunami waves could hit six nearby coastal provinces from Davao Oriental up to two hours after the earthquake struck at 9.43am (local time). He asked people to immediately move to higher ground or further inland away from coastal areas.
"We urge these coastal communities to be on alert and immediately evacuate to higher grounds until further notice," Alejandro said in a video news briefing.
"Owners of boats in harbours and those in the coastal areas...should secure their boats and move away from the waterfronts," he said.
Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami warning for northeastern regions of Papua and North Sulawesi, about 275km from the epicentre. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency said in a statement that residents in the area should be aware and stay away from beaches and riverbanks.
The Philippines was still recovering from a September 30 earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 that left at least 74 people dead and displaced thousands of people in the central province of Cebu, particularly Bogo city and outlying towns.
One of the world's most disaster-prone countries, the Philippines was often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.
The archipelago was also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, making disaster response a major task of the government and volunteer groups.
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