South Africans experienced a 6.2-magnitude earthquake off the coast of southern Africa halfway from the northern Antarctica, leaving some Cape Town residents literally shaken up Saturday afternoon.
Several Capetonians reported feeling tremors up to two hours after the seismic event and many of them took to social media to share their experience.
“Guys, we just felt a tremor in Cape Town. Our house shook, the ground shook. There was a faint rumbling sound. It all lasted 5 seconds,” one resident tweeted.
There were no immediate reports of casualties following the quake which occurred nearly 2,000 km southeast of Cape Town in the late afternoon, according to geologists who monitored the tremors.
While the epicentre was pinpointed at a sea depth of 10 km, there were no tsunami warnings or reports of damage on the South African coast, the geologists said.
South Africa’s Koeberg nuclear power plant outside the city of Cape Town on the Atlantic Coast has assured locals that there was no immediate danger to the facility and, therefore, no need to evacuate residents from the surrounding area.
Cape Town city officials confirmed that they had received reports of tremors but were still awaiting official confirmation.
“Reports have come from numerous suburbs of a tremor that was experienced,” Charlotte Powell, the City’s head of Public Awareness and Preparedness, said.
Powell added: “The Cape Town Disaster Risk Management Centre is not in a position to provide comment on the apparent seismic event until it has been confirmed by the South African Council for Geoscience.
“We can, however, confirm at this stage that the tremor did not appear to cause any impact on infrastructure of public safety.”
NM/jn/APA