Major Quake Hits Australia; 1 Killed, 21 Hurt

A major earthquake shook Australia’s southeast coast this morning, demolishing homes and trapping people inside cars in the city of Newcastle, officials said. At least one death and 21 injuries were reported.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said hundreds of thousands of homes lost electricity as a result of the 10:28 a.m. quake.

“Many homes, banks, shops and stores have been demolished,” its report said. “There is severe damage.”

News reports said the quake lasted 45 seconds in some places and was felt across the state of New South Wales. Officials at the Australian Seismological Center in Canberra said the epicenter of the quake was 40 miles west of Newcastle in an uninhabited area. They said the temblor had a magnitude of 5.5.

Buildings in Sydney were also rocked by the quake.

Newcastle, 75 miles north of Sydney, is Australia’s sixth largest city. It has a population of about 500,000 and the largest concentration of heavy industry in the country.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said at least one person was killed in a collapsed building, another was seriously injured, and 20 suffered minor injuries. A major emergency alert was declared.

“It felt like there was someone under my bedroom floor who lifted the house,” said one Newcastle resident after the initial shake.

Bureau of Mineral Resources Associate Director Peter Cook said the quake was unusually large for Australia.

“It’s a fairly large one by Australian standards,” he said, warning there might be aftershocks.

Hundreds of emergency workers were flown by helicopter to the Newcastle area and the nearby Hunter Valley wine-growing region, which appeared to bear the brunt of the damage.

One official in Newcastle, his voice shaking with emotion, said: “We just don’t have enough men here to deal with it. There are several buildings collapsed in Hamilton (a Newcastle suburb).”

Radio stations said the roof of a supermarket in a shopping center in Newcastle had collapsed.