Magnitude 6.0 earthquake causes some damage in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia -- An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 caused some damage Wednesday in the city of Melbourne in an unusually powerful temblor for Australia.

"A magnitude 6.0 #Earthquake has occurred with an epicenter near Mansfield in Victoria," according to the Victoria State Emergency Service's news feed on Twitter. "There is no tsunami threat."

The quake hit northeast of Australia’s second-most populous city near the town of Mansfield at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), the government agency said.

The temblor was so strong it was felt as far away as Adelaide in South Australia, 800 kilometers (500 miles) away, and Sydney in New South Wales, more than 900 kilometers (600 miles) away.

Melbourne residents described their shock and surprise as houses across the city began to shake, in a city which has not had an earthquake of a similar size in decades.

Images on social media showed some building damage and power lines that were disrupted in the central business district of Melbourne, where some people could be seen on the streets following the quake.

Media also showed images of damage to brickwork and fallen bricks from buildings on Chapel Street in the inner Melbourne suburb of South Yarra.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there were no reports of serious injury.

The earthquake was the largest to rattle Australia since a magnitude 6.6 earthquake off a northwest coastal town in 2019.

Australia sits in the center of a tectonic plate and as a result very rarely experiences serious earthquake activity, unlike neighboring New Zealand.

The country's worst earthquake ever was in 1988 in the Northern Territory, which measured only 6.6 magnitude, according to Geoscience Australia.