An earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter scale struck 10 kilometers east of Christchurch, on Friday afternoon.

No injuries or damage were reported but more than a thousand people working in the "red zone" of the southern New Zealand city, heavily damaged in the fatal 2011 earthquake, were sent home as a precaution, according to NZ Newswire. The New Zealand Herald reported that debris was shaken from buildings that remained damaged from the previous quake.