The death toll from an earthquake that rocked the southern Philippines rose to 15 on Thursday, officials said.
They dispelled fears that a volcano might erupt because of Wednesday's quake which wrecked dozens of wooden houses and forced more than 27,000 villagers to flee their homes.
"The worst is over," chief government vulcanologist Raymundo Punongbayan said on local television.
"They will be shaken a little bit by the aftershocks but no big one that will (cause) tsunami (tidal waves), no big one that will cause buildings to collapse."
The death toll rose overnight from 11 to 15 after relief officials from remote areas reported the discovery of four bodies.
Most of the deaths were caused by falling debris but also included four cases of heart attacks at the height of the tremor.
The quake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter Scale, toppled two old churches, ripped cracks in buildings and caused the seas off some coastal towns on Mindanao island to swell by three metres (9.7 feet).
Residents had expressed fear that Mount Parker volcano, near the epicentre of the quake, might erupt after parts of its crater walls collapsed, releasing tonnes of water that washed away houses.
(China Daily March 8, 2002)
