Earthquakes close buildings in New Zealand capital pending damage checks

Many office buildings in the New Zealand capital have been closed pending engineer inspections after a series of powerful earthquakes shook central New Zealand Friday.

A nine-storey lift shaft attached to a central Wellington parking building would be demolished urgently due to the danger of it toppling after the quakes, according to Wellington City Council.

Wellington Mayor Celia WadeBrown said in a statement there had been initial reports of superficial damage to some buildings, but no reports of any major damage so far, nor injuries.

An exodus of workers from the city center began after the first and strongest tremora magnitude 6.6 quake that rated in intensity as "severe"struck at 2:31 p.m. local time.

The quake was earlier reported at magnitude 6.2, but the government's GeoNet monitoring service later updated the measurement.

It was centered 10 km southeast of Seddon, in the far north of the South Island, at a depth of 8 km.

Seven severe and three strong aftershocksmeasuring from magnitude 4.2 to magnitude 5.8 followed over the next hour, along with many lesser tremors, all centered in the same vicinity.

The region was also shaken by three closely grouped tremors - two of magnitude 6.2 and one of magnitude 6 - at about 5.30 p.m..

Police and fire services said no injuries were reported, although a number of incidents involving broken glass had been reported.

One of the main highways out of Wellington was temporarily blocked by a rockfall and train services were suspended.

With cellphone coverage temporarily lost, many workers took to the roads to get home, causing gridlock in some areas.

Inspector Pete Cowan, of Wellington district police, urging people to be patient.

"There is significant traffic on city centre roads and many people walking home and we ask people to take extra care," Cowan said in a statement.

Police in the South Island said slips had closed a state highway south of the town of Blenheim and homes in Seddon had been damaged.

Kevin Fenaughty, of GeoNet, said in a statement that there was a 28 percent chance of another magnitude 6 or greater tremor over the 24 hours following the first.

Two large earthquakesmeasuring 6.5 and 5.5 and centered in the same vicinitystruck on July 21, closing down parts of central Wellington for at least two days afterwards as engineers assessed buildings for damage.