A panicked father rushed to save his family as a powerful earthquake shook their home in the Philippines.

Aries Mainot was finishing work when the tremors rattled his house in Calacan City, Batangas province, at 12:43 am local time today.

CCTV footage shows the frantic parent bolting from his desk to evacuate his wife and child, heard crying from shock, as furniture shook.

He said: 'I stopped what I was doing when I heard a loud noise. It turned out there was an extremely strong earthquake. It didn't matter to my wife and I that we couldn't take my valuables outside, as long as our child was safe.'

The Philippine Seismological Agency (Phivolcs) said the magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck just two kilometres southwest of Calaca City in Batangas at 12:43 am local time.

It was recorded at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) and was felt at Intensity III in the capital Metro Manila, some 135 kilometres (84 miles) away.

Phivolcs said damage and aftershocks were expected. There were no initial reports of injuries or casualties.

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.