'A real bang' - Cantabrians recover after 4.9 shocker

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker experienced 'a nasty little bump'. Photo /Sarah Ivey

Cantabrians were going about their business as usual today despite a shallow magnitude 4.9 earthquake shaking them awake in the early hours of the morning.

The largest quake since June struck at 3.29am and was centred 10km east of Lyttelton, off the end of Godley Head, at a depth of 6km. No significant damage was reported to buildings in Christchurch city centre, but GNS Science reported some "minor damage".

Mayor Bob Parker was one of those given a rude awakening in the night.

He said: "It was a nasty little bump, which certainly got my attention. It woke me up and I imagine it woke a fair proportion of the city.

"I had a Civil Defence report within 25 minutes, which to the best of their knowledge at that point, looked under control.

"We have indicator buildings around the city where our engineers go first for a common point of reference to see if there's been any structural damage but we certainly have no reports of damage other than a few stacks of dishes."

He added: "An earthquake of that size is not unforeseen - it is part of the normal winding down aftershock sequence.

"Most Cantabrians will take it in their stride. It's a bit of a pain to be woken in the middle of the night, but we're pretty well used to that and it will be business as usual today."

GNS Science had reports it was felt as far north as Hanmer Springs and as south as far as Timaru.

One person in Bromley reported the quake as "damaging", while another 14 told GNS Science it was "slightly damaging".

The tremor, which rolled on for 10-15 seconds, was centred near Lyttelton, which was badly affected by the February 22 shake.

Jeremy Agar, Deputy Chairperson of the Lyttelton-Mt Herbert Community Board, said: "It felt as big as the one we had last weekend, and made me sit up in bed. But it wasn't bad enough to do any damage.

"We've had such a flurry of them that people are rather staunch in their attitudes now. There's nothing else for it."

One Rangiora resident, Jeff Kerr was jolted awake by the quake.

He said: "It was a real bang. My wife said she heard a rumble coming before it hit. But I was still asleep when it came so I bolted upright pretty quick."

A Fire Service spokesman said there had been no reports of damage and Orion said all power had remained connected following the quake.

The quake follows two aftershocks which shook the city on Wednesday afternoon - just 15 minutes apart.

Christchurch has had more than 7000 earthquakes since last September's magnitude 7.1 quake.

A second major earthquake resulted in the deaths of 181 people on February 22.