Auckland - A powerful earthquake has hit New Zealand's remote south-west Fiordland region, a government agency in the country said.
The shallow earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale occurred at 12.12am on Thursday, New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said in an email received in Singapore.
The tremor was centred nearly 500km south-west of the South Island's main city of Christchurch and about 100km from the mountain resort of Queenstown.
The earthquake would have been felt strongly in the south of the South Island, the institute said.
The earthquake's centre was 70km north-west of the small town of Te Anau, not far from Fiordland Sound, a tourist attraction known for its beauty which is currently cut off by road because of heavy snow in the southern winter.
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New Zealand, perched on a junction between two tectonic plates, is very active geologically. Scientists record thousands of earthquakes a year in the South Pacific nation of four million people.
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