A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines Tuesday. Photo: VCG

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippines Tuesday, crushing two people under debris, cracking buildings and injuring dozens in a region still reeling from a previous deadly tremor.

Terrified locals ran into the streets after the shallow quake, which hit the island of Mindanao as schools and offices opened for the day.

The shaking lasted a minute in some areas, damaging homes, multi-storied buildings and classrooms in a region where hundreds are still displaced by a quake that killed at least five earlier this month.

The Philippines suffers regular tremors as part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Souteast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A boy was crushed by a falling wall as he tried to escape his school in Magsaysay, the town spokesman said. Though other students were injured when escaping the building, they survived.

A collapsing wall in Koronadal, killed a 66-year-old man, local authorities told AFP.

At least 50 people were hurt by falling debris. including some seven pupils and teachers hurt escaping their   school.

Locals were awed by the power of the quake. "Buildings were not just moving, they were swaying," Gadi Sorilla, a doctorfrom the epicentre told AFP.