Powerful quake of magnitude 7 hits New Caledonia, no tsunami warning

A powerful undersea earthquake measuring a magnitude 7 struck near New Caledonia in the South Pacific on Wednesday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

The quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 km (six miles) some 372 km (230 miles) east of the New Caledonian capital Noumea. The centre said there was no Pacific-wide tsunami threat and there were no immediate reports of damage.

"We felt it and they felt it more strongly on the Loyalty Islands," Civil Defense spokesman Olivier Ciry told Reuters by phone from Noumea.

"But there is nothing to say. There is no damage, no tsunami and we don't expect anything else," he said.