A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit 178 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of the North Island city of Gisborne off the New Zealand coast on Monday morning.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the quake’s epicentre was a relative deep 35 kilometers.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami warning.
New Zealand is part of a geologically active region that’s often called the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.