An offshore earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit off a southern Philippine province Friday morning, and a hazardous tsunami was possible nearby.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it was expecting damage and aftershocks from the earthquake, which was centred at sea about 62 kilometres southeast of Manay town in Davao Oriental province and was caused by movement in a fault at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres.