At least 69 people have been killed in the Philippines after buildings and walls of houses collapsed in a magnitude-6.9 earthquake.

Axar.az informs, citing ABC, the quake, which struck the central Cebu province just before 10pm on Tuesday (local time), injured many others and sent residents scrambling out of their homes into the night as the intense shaking cut off power, officials said.

The epicentre was about 19 kilometres north-east of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people.

Raffy Alejandro, a civil defence official, told reporters the hospital in Bogo city has been "overwhelmed".

Earthquake monitoring agencies had pegged the depth of the quake at 10km and recorded multiple aftershocks, the strongest being a magnitude-6.