People ran from buildings and ducked under office desks in central Napier as a strong magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck central New Zealand this afternoon and some in the Hawke's Bay city say it was one of the strongest tremors they've every felt
The quake at 3.13pm was centred 25 kilometres southwest of Taumarunui at a depth of 207 km.
More than 15,000 people across the country have reported feeling the shaking, but while Parliament's sitting was suspended for a time, there've been no reports of injuries or damage. And Civil Defence said there was no tsunami risk.
A woman visiting Napier from the Bay of Islands told 1 NEWS she was in a cafe in the city centre when the quake struck.
"It was mostly kind of a shaky one, not so much of the wavy feeling. I was in a cafe and there were glass bottles on the wall and we were all kind of watching them. So yeah, a bit scary," she said.
"I thought maybe there'd be some aftershocks or something so I was eyeing the underside of the table, thinking of getting under there."
She said everyone else in the cafe was "pretty relaxed", adding, "I've been through a few [earthquakes] actually but I think I was the most nervous there".
Another woman who'd been in a restaurant said she wondered if a quake was actually happening then saw "everyone jump up and tear out the door".
"And you think it definitely was an earthquake. It was quite strong. Everybody just left their seats and ran outside."
She didn't think she'd felt a quake that strong before.
A teacher said she was in the office chatting to her boss.
"And he went 'did you feel that?' And I went 'yeah, I think.' And that was the first little one. And then the big jolt came and I was straight over to the door and stood in the bosses' door. And he jumped up and stood next to me.
"And we were both standing in the doorway and it was fairly scary."
Another woman said she was on the first floor of the BNZ, "and it wasn't nice" when the tremor hit.
"It was a very sharp jolt and it seemed to go on for a long time. Everyone under their desks and a lot of shouting to make sure everybody had done that," she said.
The magnitude 7.8 Napier earthquake of February 3, 1931 killed 256 people, injured thousands and devastated the Hawke's Bay region.
It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster.
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