Canberra - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 rocked the northern Australian city of Darwin on Wednesday but there were no reports of injuries or damage, government seismologists and police said.
The quake was centred in the Banda Sea, about 800km north of Darwin, and struck at 8.20pm (10h50 GMT), a spokesperson for state-run Geoscience Australia said.
"It lasted about a minute," the spokesman said.
Geoscience Australia seismologist Mark Leonard told the AAP news agency the earthquake was unlikely to cause a tsunami.
"The Banda Sea is one of the most seismically active areas in the world and gets an earthquake of about magnitude 5 every couple of months," he said.
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A Northern Territory police spokesperson said there were no reports of damage.
The quake was felt 300km south of Darwin in the northern Australian town of Katherine.
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