New Zealand was hit by a strong earthquake on Thursday, triggering power cuts and damage to buildings. According to officials, no casualties were reported.  

The earthquake, of 6.8 magnitude on the Richter scale, was centered in the Hikurangi undersea trench 30 miles off the coast, south east of Gisborne on the North Island and it hit at 8:55 p.m. (7.55am GMT), Guardian Unlimited reports.

The GNS Science tsunami panel said that there were no signs of a big wave to be formed.

Authorities said that Gisborne suffered the most after quake.

Vince Cholewa, a Ministry of Civil Defense spokesman, said that so far he can confirm the collapse of three buildings, the Southland Times informs.

He said: "As far as we are aware, there are no injuries in those building, in the CBD. There's been damage to power, gas and water supplies and there's been intermittent phone contact."

Small fires broke out due to rupture gas pipes but they were put out.

The earthquake came as a series of sharp shocks and accompanied by a roaring sound. The whole east coast of the North and South Island felt it as well as the capital Wellington, located at about 280 miles south of Gisborne.

According to a seismologist, due to the fact that the earthquake was shallow there was no fear of a tsunami wave.

Vance Walker, Gisborne District Council spokesman, said that there wasn’t any loss of life.

He said: "We're currently in the situation of trying to ascertain what damage has been done. There is considerable traffic moving about and that is causing somewhat of a problem in terms of emergency services and repairs services having to move around within the city and other communities.”

He added that they are trying to asses the damages and to determine what needs to be repaired immediately.

In New Zealand there are about 14,000 earthquakes a year, 20 of them of 5.0 on the Richter scale. Some 150 are left by the residents and 10 of them cause damages.