DFA: No Pinoys hurt in New Zealand quake


There are no reports yet of any Filipinos being injured during an earthquake which struck New Zealand's capital Wellington earlier in the day, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said onFriday.
 
In a text message to reporters, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said Philippine Ambassador to New Zealand Virginia Benavidez told them that they have not received any reports of Filipinos being injured in the Wellington quake.  
 
"Our embassy will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the safety and welfare of Filipinos there," he said.
 
Hernandez said there are about 36,000 Filipinos in New Zealand.

Little damage

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck south of New Zealand's capital on Friday, sending panicked Wellington workers and residents into the streets, but caused little major damage just weeks after a similar size quake shook the harborside city.

The quake, which hit near the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, was dangerously shallow at a depth of about 8 kilometers (5 miles), similar to a deadly tremor that shattered the south island city of Christchurch in 2011.

Fire authorities said it was too early to assess the impact fully. There were reports of superficial damage to buildings from the quake, which shattered windows and sent items tumbling from supermarket shelves.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally measured the quake with a magnitude of 6.8 but later revised that figure down to 6.5. New Zealand quake monitoring service GNS Science put the magnitude at 6.2.

The quake did not trigger a widespread tsunami alert, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, although there was a series of strong aftershocks.

Some people were trapped in lifts in Wellington, a city of 400,000 that sprawls across hills along a major geological fault.

Air, rail and bus services were suspended while officials checked tracks, runways and roads for damage, and trading on New Zealand's NZX stock exchange was halted temporarily.

New Zealand has been hit by a string of quakes since a shallow, 6.3 magnitude tremor devastated the Canterbury region in 2011, killing nearly 200 people and causing $30 billion in damage to Christchurch, the country's second largest city.

Earthquakes are common in New Zealand, whose two islands lie along the Australia-Pacific tectonic plate boundary. - with reports from Reuters/Michaela del Callar, VVP, GMA News

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