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.

Nearly 6,000 people reported on the website of Geonet that they felt the quake.

Geonet initially reported a 6-magnitude quake at 8:08 p.m. local time (0708 GMT) 10 km southwest of Ruatoria in North Island, but the report was removed from the website shortly after its release.