A STRONG 6.5-magnitude earthquake has struck off New Zealand, jolting the nation’s capital but no tsunami alert was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.
The quake hit 57 kilometres south-southwest of Wellington at a depth of 14 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
USGS initially reported the magnitude at 6.9.
It was followed minutes later by another quake of 5.5 and came about 10 hours after a 5.8 tremor in the same region which has been rocked by multiple quakes in recent days.
Dozens of earthquakes were recorded on Sunday with New Zealand’s GeoNet earthquake monitoring service describing the 6.5 tremor which was felt widely as “severe”.
- Partial reporting AFP
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