By Bernard Hickey
An earthquake measuring 6.6 struck near Seddon in Marlborough shortly after 2.30 pm on Friday. It was felt heavily in Wellington, forcing evacuations from offices and causing gridlock in the city, but there were no reports of damage or injury.
State Highway 1 from Seddon to Kaikoura was closed because of damage to bridges and two bridges in Blenheim were extensively damaged, NZTA said.
The earthquake was centred 10 kilometres south-east of Seddon in Marlborough at 2.31 pm and was 8 kms deep, Geonet reports. It was initially measured at 6.9, then downgraded to 6.2, then upgraded to 6.6.
Regular aftershocks were felt in the following 90 minutes, including a brace around 3.50 pm measuring 5.7.
Office workers in Wellington's CBD have left their buildings and fire engines are active in the downtown area. Many companies and departments have advised staff to go home for the day while buildings are checked by engineers.
Roads quickly became gridlocked as people tried to leave the CBD. The train network has been closed until further notice.
The New Zealand Fire Service said it had not received any calls involving serious damage to buildings or property.
"Fire appliances are responding to a many of the automatic alarms that have been triggered in the central city area and to a few calls reporting people trapped in lifts," it said.
The Fire Service said there had been reports of power lines down in the Seddon area.
The New Zealand dollar initially dropped 40 basis points to 80.55 USc after the quake, before rebounding by 3pm to 80.7 USc.
The NZX announced just after 3 pm it had halted trade on its markets. It said it would reopen just before 4pm.
Telecom said no significant damage appeared to have been sustained to its networks in the Lower North Island and Upper South Island.
"For a period of time after the major earthquake hit just after 2.30pm, our networks experienced severe congestion as a result of many people trying to make calls to loved ones," Telecom said, adding it encouraged customers to text rather than call to leave the network open for emergency calls.
111 calls from Wellington have been diverted to Christchurch as part of Telecom's business continuity plans.
Telecom said it had decided to close all its key buildings in Wellington area as a precaution pending engineering checks.
The Wellington Airport said it had briefly stopped flights to check its runways and had reopened shortly before 3 pm.
Main highway closed
NZTA said there were rock falls on State Highway One in the Blenheim area.
"Needle Creek Bridge and Flaxbourne Bridge, which are about 5kms apart on State Highway (SH1), are closed. Both are located south of Seddon," NZTA said, asdding SH1 was closed from Seddon to Kaikoura.
NZTA said it was doing structural checks of the highway and bridges in the area.
Insurer Tower said it had received limited reports of damage and its staff were safe.
Precinct Properties said no major damage had been reported to its buildings, which include State Insurance Tower, Vodafone on the Quay, 171 Featherston Street, 125 The Terrace, No. 1 and 3 The Terrace, Pastoral House, Mayfair House, 80 The Terrace, Deloitte House and Bowen Campus.
(Updated with details, comments from Telecom, Fire Service, NZTA, Tower, Precinct, Quake map)
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.