Wave of Powerful Quakes Rock New Zealand

A series of powerful earthquakes triggered an exodus of people from the New Zealand’s capital center on Friday.

According to the government’s GeoNet monitoring service, the first quake struck at 2:31pm local time at a magnitude of 6.6, which is labeled as “severe” in intensity.

Seven severe and three strong aftershocks, measuring from magnitude 4.2 to magnitude 5.8, followed over the next hour, along with many lesser tremors in the same area.

Police and fire services said no injuries were reported, although a number of incidents involving broken glass had been reported.