Gamers fled from a computer shop as an earthquake rattled the southern Philippines today.

Footage shows the locals immersed in their video games at an internet cafe in Tagum city, Davao del Norte province on March 7.

Upon feeling the room shake, they abandoned their sessions and ran out of the shop in a hurry.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake struck at 2:02 pm at a depth of 10 kilometres. It was centred some eight kilometres southeast of New Bataan municipality in Davao de Oro province.

The agency said damage and aftershocks were expected.

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands inside the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' where the majority of Earth's volcano eruptions and earthquakes happen.