Locals call early morning quake 'intense'

LATEST: Resident of New Plymouth Michael Riley has told infonews.co.nz of the terror and pain he went threw as the earthquake took place... 

A huge earthquake struck the small town of Opunake in Taranaki just after 3.11am this morning.

The earthquake which was felt in Auckland Wellington was a magnitude 5.2 earthquake that struck 5km deep according to Geonet.

Michael Riley told infonews.co.nz that the earthquake was 'intense' it was 'terrible'.

Michael told Info News that he had been on RadioLIVE New Zealands most popular radio station for over 10 miniutes and reported after shocks LIVE.

He added it was a complete terror, although he is happy that there was no damage.

He has been on ONE News aswell.

Damage has not been reported although one resident has sent infonews.co.nz the image above of their rubbish bin which reportedly fell over because of the quake.

They also advised infonews.co.nz that a few extra smaller things broke inside his home including a mirror.

Residents of Levin have told infonews.co.nz that they felt the earthquake and that it was a mild quake but "you could feel the two jolts inbetween the earthquake".

The first person to report the quake to infonews.co.nz was Mellisa who said the earthquake was 'intense' she was worried for the sake of her life, because she thought it could have became worse.

The earthquake was 'severe'.

A resident of New Plymouth Andrew has told infonews.co.nz the earthquake shook his bed and woke him up.

"My children were yelling out to me, they were horrifyed" he told us.

Another resident told infonews.co.nz at around 6am that they wondered why they woke up at around 3am and now they know why, she added "I get very scared over earthquakes because of past experiances" 

There has been an aftershock of a 4.5 magnitude earthquake at a depth of 5km.

One resident on Oakura said that the quake was short but severe like the first jolt at 3.11am.

Geonet reported it as strong, the quake struck at 3.42am.

Comment on this article if you felt it, tell us your newstip. We'd love to hear from you.