Wellington:
A strong 6.9-magnitude quake struck off New Zealand's Kermadec Islands early Tuesday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.
The earthquake struck at 7:19 am (1919 GMT Monday) and occurred 96 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Raoul Island, the US Geological Survey said, revising earlier parameters.
The epicentre was at a depth of 20 kilometres.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which initially put the depth of the quake at five kilometres, said "no destructive, widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data".
However, earthquakes of this size "sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre", the Hawaii-based agency said.