By James Murray
An earthquake measuring 5 on the richter scale has struck Whanganui.
RadioLIVE talback host and Whanganui mayor Michael Laws announced on his show that he had experienced the strongest earthquake he had ever felt.
"That was an absolute beauty. The studio rocked and I mean literally rocked,” he said.
RadioLIVE reader Mary Jane Tomasi said, “At the moment [Laws] is just walking round the building making sure everyone is okay.”
Mr Laws continued to describe the quake on his show.
“I've been in one of those ghost trains where, you know where you're in a ghost train and sometimes they flip the levels to make you be unbalanced... that was what we're seeing in reality,” he said.
“My studio walls leapt inward by at least a foot, I'm not exaggerating. They came twoards me, they went out, they came toward me, they went out.”
Mr Laws saide was lucky to be higher up in his building.
“I'm on the 3rd floor of the building. It's an old brick building built circa 1920 I suppose. Gosh I don't know if it would have been any worse at ground level. But certainly it was a beauty.”
Fans of the 3 News facebook page said they felt the earthquake in Palmerston North and New Plymouth.
The earthquake occurred at 10:17am at a depth of 5km, 20km south-west of Whanganui.
This is breaking news – more to follow.
3 News