A magnitude 7.6 to 7.9 earthquake deep in the seabed north of the Kermadec Islands was felt in Nuku'alofa at around 8:30 pm Tonga time.

The quake shook the Matangi Tonga office in Nuku'alofa lightly for over a minute but was not strong enough to cause any damage.

The Pacific Tsunami warning centre NOAA, reported that the earthquake at a depth of 130 km was too deep inside the earth to generate a significant tsunami. NOAA rated the earthquake magnitude 7.9.

Meanwhile, the USGS located the earthquake at 26.156S, 177.453W or 600 km (370 miles) SSW of Nuku'alofa, Tonga, with a magnitude of 7.6, occurring at 07:28:24 UTC.

It was epi-centred 345km (215 miles) North of Raoul Island, in the Kermadec Islands.

Earthquake and cyclone

Tongans felt the earthquake only hours after a Tropical Cyclone Alert had been cancelled as Tropical Cyclone Daman weakened, moving to the south of Fiji.