Early morning magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Wellington felt by thousands

December 31, 2020
Seismograph recording the seismic activity of an earthquake (file picture).

A 4.5 magnitude earthquake has struck near Wellington early this morning, with almost 13 thousand people reporting they felt the shaking on the GeoNet website. 

The quake hit at 1:10am, 10km west of Upper Hutt at a depth of 25 km. 

GeoNet has described the quake as being "moderate", with the jolt mostly felt around the lower North Island. People as far away as Auckland and Dunedin have also reported feeling the quake. 

Several people on Twitter have said they heard a loud bang right before the shaking started.
 

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