In a tweet on Wednesday morning the VICSES News Twitter account operated by Victorian State Emergency Service said the earthquake epicenter had been located near Mansfield in the state of Victoria.
Please be patient as lines may be busy, the tweet said.
Originally the Australian government had demolished the earthquake with a magnitude of 6 and downgraded it slightly to 5.9. The US Geological Survey reported also that the earthquake magnitude was 5.9 in the face of the earthquake.
Videos on social media demonstrated at least one building suffered some minor damage and power lines were disrupted in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, where some people could be seen on the streets following the earthquake.
Melbourne residents described their shock and surprise as houses across the city began to shake in a city that has not had an earthquake of a similar size in decades, in a city which has not had an earthquake of a similar size in years. There are no injuries reported so far. The temblor was so strong it was felt as far away as Sydney in Australia, 800 kilometers 500 miles away, and Adelaide in New South Wales, more than 900 kilometers 600 miles away. Geoscience Australia said there was an aftershock following the earthquake measuring about 4.0 in magnitude, less than half an hour from the initial shock. Buildings hit along Chapel Street are seen following an earthquake on 22 September in Melbourne, Australia. Australia sits in the center of a tectonic plate and is that a result very rare earthquake activity unlike neighboring New Zealand. The worst earthquake on Earth blew out in 1988 in the Northern Territory, which measured only 6.6 magnitude, according to Geoscience Australia. The Melbourne earthquake comes after a day of heated protests in the city over strict months-long locks which have been put in place to prevent the spread of the Covid - 19 Delta variant. Demonstrators blocked main roads and lit flares amid clashes with police in some of the worst violent protests seen in the city in years. To date, Victoria has recorded a total of 30,224 confirmed cases of Covid in which 383 died.