A 4.5 magnitude earthquake hit Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, at 10.07pm local time last night but no one was harmed and no damage reported.
Just hours after New Zealand observed two minutes of silence to pay respects to those killed in the Christchurch earthquake last week, the fresh quake hit Wellington.
Twitter was immediately awash with comments. A member of the prime minister’s staff, Francis Till, tweeted that it “seemed pretty intense as Welly quakes go. Beehive rocked pretty well.”
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However, political reporter Vernon Small dismissed the tremor as “a nasty little quake”.
The quake, which occurred at 10.07 pm local time, was felt in the North Island and upper South Island, and was located 20 km north-west of Wellington.
A Wellington resident told the National Business Review: “Certainly the largest I’ve felt in three years in Wellington, I think.”
“[There was a] bit of a rumble. Very much sharp shaking here rather than a jolt. It went for a few seconds.”
The death toll from last week’s earthquake in Christchurch was reached 155 and is still rising.
