Magnitude 7.4 Quake Strikes South of New Zealand

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 occurred south of New Zealand on Sunday and there may be a chance of tsunamis, Japanese monitors said. There was no immediate report of injuries, damage or tsunamis.

The quake rocked an open ocean area at around 4:24 p.m. New Zealand time (0524 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a statement.

The earthquake struck near New Zealand’s uninhabited Auckland Islands, 475 kilometers (295 miles) southwest of the country’s southernmost city of Invercargill, and 18.9 kilometers (11.7 miles) below the earth’s surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

There were no immediate reports of damage on the islands. New Zealand disaster monitoring authorities did not issue a tsunami warning.

Invercargill police senior Sgt. Brock Davis said that while one of his staff “thought they felt something (when the quake occurred), I didn’t feel anything myself.”

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, issued a tsunami information notice at 0538 GMT, according to the Japanese agency. However, Davis said that as of three hours after the Hawaiian center’s notice, he had not received any word of a tsunami striking southern New Zealand.