No Serious Injuries, Damage in 5.0 Landers Aftershock : Earthquake: The temblor, centered 10 miles southeast of Yucca Valley, also felt in Orange County.

A magnitude 5.0 temblor jolted a large area of Southern California on Friday night, knocking merchandise off store shelves and causing at least one minor injury.

The temblor, an aftershock of last year’s powerful Landers earthquake, was felt as far south as San Diego and northwest to Los Angeles.

The quake, which struck at 6:46 p.m., was centered 10 miles southeast of Yucca Valley, said seismologist Phil Maechling of Caltech in Pasadena.

Several Orange County residents reported feeling the temblor to law enforcement agencies but most people did not seem aware of it.

Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh said she felt the shaking while working at the Orange County Coroner’s Department in Santa Ana.

“It was so funny because I thought somebody was fooling around with my chair,” Ellingburgh said. “I turned around, but of course there was no one there.”

Santa Ana police, like most other departments, reported no calls about the quake.

In Orange, police communications supervisor Gilbert Carreon said the department received one inquiry.

Fullerton police reported that they, too, received some calls. “We had just a few random calls. Nothing exciting,” police Sgt. Don Kimbro said.

Firefighters and sheriff’s deputies in San Bernardino County said they received no reports of damage, but several stores reported broken bottles and items falling off shelves.

A clerk at the K mart in Yucca Valley sustained minor injuries when she was hit on the head by a decorative cover for a roof sprinkler, “but she went right back to work,” store officials said.

Nearly 50,000 aftershocks have been reported in the area since the June 28, 1992, Landers quake. But Friday’s temblor was one of the largest in magnitude.

“This was a nothing compared to last year’s quake,” said Frank Smith, an assistant manager of a Thrifty drugstore in Yucca Valley. “Nothing fell off the shelves and while the store was crowded, no one panicked. It only lasted five to seven seconds.”

San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Wayne MacKenzie in Joshua Tree said “the phones went out for about the first three minutes but that was it. Power stayed on, and in our whole south desert battalion, which covers the Landers quake area, there wasn’t one call of damage nor injury.”

Linda Drott, a dispatcher at the Yucca Valley sheriff’s station, also said no damage or injuries were reported.

Darren Schram, a box boy at a nearby Vons, said “a lot of the pickle bottles fell down and broke and a few other items too, but we cleaned it up in less than 15 minutes.”

The earthquake alarmed residents of the High Desert.

“You could feel it rumbling under your feet and it didn’t stop,” said Stacy Akalski, assistant manager of K mart in Yucca Valley, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.