Tremor felt as 4.7 magnitude quake hits New Zealand's North Island

WELLINGTON, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of New Zealanders said they felt the tremor on Wednesday as a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hits Whanganui on the west coast of the country's North Island.

Geonet, New Zealand's geological hazard monitoring system, reported a 4.7-magnitude quake 5 km north of Whanganui at 8:09 p.m. local time (0709 GMT), with a depth of 96 km.