Magnitude 7.1 quake strikes east of Papua New Guinea island

Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck 135 km (85 miles) east of the town of Rabaul, on the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea's island of New Britain, at 3.39 a.m. on Friday, local time (1739 GMT on Thursday), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Although the quake was under the seabed at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a tsunami.

A quake of magnitude 7.5 struck the rugged highlands of the Papua New Guinea mainland on Feb. 26, killing more than 100 people.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Roche)

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