Strong 6.2 quake strikes off Papua New Guinea

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck off Papua New Guinea's island of Bougainville on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of any damage, seismologists said.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck off Papua New Guinea's island of Bougainville on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of any damage, seismologists said.

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The tremor, which struck at 11:42 am local time (0142 GMT), was about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Arawa city at a depth of 65 kilometres, according the US Geological Survey.

"At this stage we have not received any reports of any damage," a spokesman for PNG's national earthquakes centre told AFP.

"We have not had any report of such activity as a tsunami, but normally (with) earthquakes of about 6.2 we rarely anticipate tsunamis along our coastline," he added.

Papua New Guinea sits on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where continental plates meet. The region is frequently hit by earthquakes.