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5.7-magnitude earthquake hits New Zealand

19 July 2013 02:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An earthquake shook the top of New Zealand's South Island and the capital Wellington on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The quake, occurred at 9:06 a.m. local time (21:06 GMT Thursday) with an initial Richter scale magnitude 5.7, was centred 30 km east of Seddon, near South Island town of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km, the New Zealand government geological agency GNS Science reported.

Xinhua reporters in Wellington Office felt the jolt, which was strongly, lasts at least 20 seconds.

So far, there were no reports of causalities or damages.

Civil Defence in both Marlborough and Nelson say they have had no reports of any damage as a result.

The earthquake was also felt north at Taumarunui and south to Buller.

GNS Science said it occurred below Cook Strait, between Blenheim and Wellington.Seismologist Anna Kaiser said it's not clear yet which fault produced the tremor.

Kaiser also said there have been several aftershocks since the initial earthquake, most of them too weak to have been felt.