WELLINGTON: An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale jolted east of the North Island of New Zealand at 07:53 GMT on Thursday, Xinhua News quoted the US Geological Survey as saying.
The epicentre, with a depth of 13.40 km, was initially determined to be at 35.43 degrees south latitude and 177.88 degrees west longitude.
The Hong Kong Observatory earlier reported the quake was 6.6- magnitude.