5.1 intensity quake hits Andamans, no casualties reported so far

KOLKATA: A moderate earthquake measuring 5.4 in the richter scale hit the Andaman Island region at about 2.45 pm on Thursday.

The Andaman earthquake comes within a week of the high intensity quake that hit Nepal and adjoining areas including parts of India last Saturday.

The Indian Seismology Department, under IMD, however, played down fears of a tsunami. "It has nothing got to do with Nepal quake, it occurred in active seismic zone," said JL Gautam, director, told a TV channel.

The depth of the earthquake was measured as 10 km, IMD said in a statement. Reports of damage to properties or life have not been received so far, it said.

The earthquake comes within a week of the high intensity quake that hit Nepal and adjoining areas including parts of India last Saturday.

Earlier in the day, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit off Papua New Guinea, 110 kilometres south-southwest of the town of Kokopo, the US Geological Survey said, just a day after a 6.7 magnitude tremor in the region.

The quake hit the northeast of the Pacific nation's capital Port Moresby, in the New Britain region at a depth of 53 kilometres.

There were no tsunami warnings, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. A 6.7 magnitude quake hit the same region on Thursday, 131 kilometres southwest of Kokopo, but there were no reports of serious damage. "This is the second earthquake that has occurred in that region over the last two days," co-director of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre Daniel Jaksa told AFP.