A 7.4-magnitude earthquake has struck north-east of New Zealand, with thousands of residents woken by terrifying shaking. The quake hit at sea at a depth of about 33 kilometres (20 miles), south of the Kermadec Islands, at just after 1am local time on Friday. A warning of hazardous tsunami waves within 300km (186 miles) of the epicentre was issued within minutes. However, the alert was later downgraded with no tsunami threat for New Zealand or Australia. The 5.1 magnitude quake was 10 kilometres south-west of Te Kaha with a depth of 28 kilometres.

Source: Daily Mail June 18, 2020 13:54 UTC