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21 Aug 2003 15:33:12 GMT
Powerful earthquake hits southwest New Zealand
WELLINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake rocked New Zealand's remote southwest Fiordland region on Friday but there were no initial reports of damage or injuries, emergency service officials said.
The shallow earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck shortly after midnight on Friday (1212 GMT Thursday), New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
The earthquake would have been felt strongly in the south of the South Island, the institute said.
"If you were sitting in your chair, it gave you a bloody fright," said the duty officer for emergency services in Southland, New Zealand's southernmost province.
State-owned National Radio reported that power had been cut to two small towns.
The quake gave a brief jolt to the foreign exchange market in London. "Our forex guys jumped up and down for a few seconds and then they realised where the earthquake was," said Jim Webber, chief economist at Toronto Dominion Securities in London.
The tremor was centred nearly 500 km (300 miles) southwest of the South Island's main city of Christchurch and about 100 km (60 miles) from the mountain resort of Queenstown.
Senior Sergeant Ian Freeman of the Southern Communications Centre said police were inundated with calls, with 115 emergency calls in half an hour.
"We've had stuff falling off walls and that kind of thing but no serious damage nor injuries reported," he told the New Zealand Press Association.
The earthquake's centre was 70 km (40 miles) northwest of the small town of Te Anau, not far from Milford Sound, a tourist attraction known for its beauty which is currently cut off by road because of heavy winter snow.
New Zealand, perched on a junction between two tectonic plates, is very active geologically. Scientists record thousands of earthquakes a year in the South Pacific nation of four million people.
It was the second quake to hit the area in two days. A quake measuring 4.7 struck 40 km northwest of Te Anau on August 20.