Major Temblor Shakes Australian Southeast Coast

A major earthquake shook Australia’s southeast coast today, demolishing homes and buildings in the city of Newcastle, officials said. Up to seven people were reported killed and as many as 100 injured.

“It felt like there was someone under my bedroom floor who lifted the house,” said one Newcastle resident, who reported two aftershocks after the magnitude 5.5 temblor, which struck at 10:28 a.m. (3:28 p.m. PST Wednesday).

The earthquake, lasting 45 seconds in some places, was felt across the state of New South Wales.

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

Television footage showed many businesses in the city with collapsed awnings and some buildings reduced to rubble. Police moved to evacuate the city’s business district.

A major emergency alert was declared.

“Ambulances are reporting lots of devastation, lots of damage, lots of injuries,” a spokeswoman for the Child Care organization was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press.

In Canberra, the federal capital, a spokesman for the Australian Seismological Center put the quake’s epicenter at 50 miles northwest of Sydney.

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 damage.

Newcastle Hospital reported structural damage and said some patients were evacuated.

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

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

In Sydney, the quake was felt as a sharp five-second jolt that swayed high-rise buildings.