A motorcycle rider was hit by soil and trees tumbling onto a road after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in the Philippines on Tuesday.

The motorists were driving along a hillside road in New Bataan, Davao de Oro province when chunks of soil slid down and covered the asphalt on March 7.

Onlookers shouted to warn oncoming drivers, but one of them was toppled by the rushing debris.

Resident Glenn Jerald Bestil said: 'The driver of the motorcycle was okay. If he weren't wearing a helmet, his head would have been injured because he was going fast.'

Other landslides were also reported in the province.

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.