Magnitude-6.2 earthquake strikes near Vanuatu

A magnitude-6.2 earthquake has struck near the Pacific Island of Vanuatu, the US Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake hit at 6.28am Irish time about 210 miles north-west of the capital, Port Vila, near the island of Efate, about 1,175 miles east of Australia.

Brian Shiro, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre at Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the earthquake’s depth of 99 miles below the earth’s surface meant there was no risk of a local or Pacific-wide tsunami.

“That’s too small to be of much worry,” Shiro said of the earthquake. “There’s no chance of anything even locally.”