A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck near New Zealand’s capital Wellington on Wednesday, as the nation grapples with widespread landslides and flooding following a cyclone.
New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Centre tweeted that the shake was “widely felt in the North Island”, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury and no tsunami warning.
The quake struck under the Cook Strait that separates the North and South islands at a depth of 74km (50 miles), the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.
New Zealand's Lower North Island has been rocked by a strong earthquake.
The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 7.38pm (local time 5:38 AEDT) on Wednesday and was centred 50km north-west of the town of Paraparaumu, which is about 10km north of the capital, Wellington, at a depth of 48km.
More than 60,600 people reported feeling the quake on Geonet in the following half-hour.
The majority of those people reported the quake as feeling "light", while 72 reported it as extreme.
It was felt from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island.
People in central Christchurch felt the slow roll, which lasted about a minute.
The last strong earthquake, also measuring 6, was 5km south of Te Aroha, a town in the north of the North Island, on February 3.
The earthquake is the second natural disaster to hit New Zealand in a matter of days, after Cyclone Gabrielle caused the worst damage in a generation, according to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, and killed four people.
More to come...
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