Earthquake in New Zealand Registers 6.5, Rocks Capital

An Earthquake in New Zealand on Sunday rocked the capital city, Wellington, with aftershocks being felt around a 35 mile radius.

All scheduled flights in and out of local and international airports in the region were suspended, although a tsunami warning was not issued by the Pacific tsunami center.

The earthquake registered a 6.5 magnitude and is the largest of a couple earthquakes in New Zealand which have occurred this weekend. The first significant one being on Thursday and registering 5.3.

The quake struck at around 5 p.m. and fortunately damage was mainly structural and no too major. A spokesperson at a Wellington fire station told reporters:

“We’ve had one report of structural damage so far, but as far as I know, power in the city is still on,”

The capital is home to under half a million residents, who are no strangers to natural disasters, having lived through the famous Christchurch earthquake of 2011. In that earthquake 185 people lost their lives as buildings collapsed and toppled on them.

So far the most recent earthquake in New Zealand has seen no casualties and only two people are reportedly injured. a spokesman for the Wellington Free Ambulance service said:

“We had one guy knocked out by a TV falling on him. That was at the Soho Apartments in Taranaki St. He was a male in his 40s and was taken to Wellington Hospital.”

Many homes in the surrounding areas have been evacuated as a precaution and it is not yet clear if there are more injured people from the earthquake in New Zealand.