A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday off Canada's Pacific coast in the remote Queen Charlotte Islands region, experts from the US Geological Survey said, but no casualties were reported.
The epicenter of the earthquake was 260 kilometers (160 miles) south-southwest of the port of Prince Rupert, a regional transport hub on the British Columbia mainland with a population of around 12,000.
The quake struck at 1530 GMT at a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) and was followed seven minutes later by an aftershock at the same depth with a 5.7 magnitude, the USGS said.
A separate bulletin from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center ruled out the threat of a destructive tsunami.
The quake was "felt quite strongly" along the Pacific coast of British Colombia, Stephane Mazzotti from the Geological Survey of Canada told AFP, adding that he had received no reports of significant damage or casualties.
Mazzotti said the quake struck the sparsely populated southern end of the Queen Charlotte Islands, which begin about 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of the US border and stretch north for 300 kilometers (190 miles) toward Alaska.
Rod Link, a local newspaper publisher in the town of Terrace about 400 kilometers (250 miles) inland from the epicenter, told AFP that window blinds and picture frames in his office shook for about 30 seconds.
"Shortly after 7:30 am local time, my window blinds started moving back and forth," he said. "I have a bit of a fever and at first I thought I was just dizzy from the flu… but then I realized the blinds were really moving.
"You get a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach when things are moving around you."
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