A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, as local authorities warned of a “destructive tsunami” and urged people in coastal areas to flee.

The quake struck at a depth of 20 miles at about 10.37pm local time, roughly 13 miles north-east of Hinatuan municipality in Surigao del Sur province on Mindanao island, according to the US Geological Survey.

“Destructive tsunami is expected with life threatening wave heights,” the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on Twitter.

It said waves of more than one metre above the normal tides were expected to hit the coast close to midnight and advised people in Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to “immediately evacuate” to higher ground or further inland.

The Japanese broadcaster NHK said that tsunami waves of up to a metre were expected to reach Japan’s southwestern coast around 30 minutes later.

Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through South-east Asia and across the Pacific basin.

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