MELBOURNE – A shallow quake rattled southeastern Australia today, sending panicked residents running into the streets of the country’s second-largest city here.
The rare quake hit east of the city just after 9am local time (2300 GMT), and was felt hundreds of kilometres away.
The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.8, and said it struck at a depth of 10km.
Images shared on social media showed rubble strewn across the popular shopping area around Melbourne’s Chapel Street, with bricks apparently coming loose from buildings.
Sizeable earthquakes are unusual in Australia’s populated southeast, with local media reporting that today’s temblor is among the largest ever recorded in the country.
“It was quite violent. Everyone was kind of in shock,” cafe worker Parker Mayo, 30, told AFP.
Geosciences Australia said an aftershock measuring 4.0 magnitude struck shortly after the initial quake.
The mayor of Mansfield, near the quake epicentre, said there is no damage in the small town, but the quake took residents by surprise.
“I was sitting down at work at my desk, and I needed to run outside. It took me a while to work out what it was,” Mark Holcombe told public broadcaster ABC.
“We don’t have earthquakes that I am aware of – none of the locals I spoke to this morning had that experience with earthquakes here before – so it is one right out of left field.”
Emergency services said they received calls for help as far away as Dubbo, about 700km from the quake epicentre, with fire and rescue crews dispatched to help.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking from New York, said there were no initial reports of injuries.
“It can be a very, very disturbing event for an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia.” – AFP, September 22, 2021
