KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 -- A powerful earthquake struck near Mindanao in the southern Philippines this morning, with tremors felt in parts of Sabah.

Malaysia's Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) said the earthquake occurred at 7.37am, with a magnitude of 7.9 and a depth of 50km.

The epicentre was located at coordinates 5.7deg North and 125.1deg East, about 97km south of Koronadal City in the Philippines.

"Tremors were reportedly felt in Tawau, Semporna and surrounding areas," MetMalaysia said in a statement on Facebook, adding that it was monitoring developments related to the incident.

International monitoring agencies reported varying preliminary measurements. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) initially estimated th...