A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck south-eastern Australia on Wednesday, shaking buildings in Melbourne and running out of panicked residents, in a region unaccustomed to earthquakes.

The earthquake, which struck only ten kilometers deep, surprised residents of Australia's second largest city at 9 a.m. and was felt for hundreds of miles around.

Rescue services have received calls for help as far as Dubbo, about 700 kilometers from the epicenter.

The United States Institute for Geological Studies (USGS) put the magnitude at 5.8, before revising it to 5.9.

Most of Melbourne's residents, confined for eight weeks, were at home by the time the earth shook.

Scenes of panicked residents leaving homes have invaded social networks.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, responding from New York, insisted there were no casualties or significant damage.

He nevertheless conceded the “very disturbing” side of the earthquake for the population, in an area not used to tremors like Australia.

An earthquake every ten or twenty years in the area

“Everything started to shake… Everyone was a bit in shock,” says Parker Mayo, a 30-year-old cafe worker, while images from the Chapel Street shopping area show bricks falling to the ground. A magnitude 4 aftershock occurred shortly after the first tremor. Large earthquakes are unusual in Southeast Australia, a fairly densely populated region. “I was sitting at work at my desk… It took me a while to figure out what it was,” the mayor of Mansfield, near the epicenter of the earthquake, Mark Holcombe told ABC. .

It is the biggest earthquake in southeast Australia in years, said Mike Sandiford, a geologist at the University of Melbourne. An earthquake of this magnitude occurs every "ten to twenty years in South East Australia, the last was Thorpdale in 2012," he said. "We had very large magnitudes 6 in the late 1800s, although the precise magnitudes are not well known," he said. Geoscience Australia said the quake was followed by a series of four aftershocks with a magnitude of 2.5 to 4.1.

Australians should expect "several hundred aftershocks, most not perceptible to humans, but probably a dozen will be felt," the scientist warned, speculating on the "billions of dollars in damage" that would have occurred. caused the earthquake “if it had occurred in Melbourne”.

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