Urgent: 6.3-magnitude quake shakes central New Zealand

Much of New Zealand was shaken by a 6.3 -magnitude earthquake that struck off the northeast of the South Island Friday.

The government's GeoNet monitoring service said the quake struck at 3:36 p.m. and was centered 40 km northwest of the town of Kaikoura at a depth of 76 km.

The agency upgraded the magnitude from an initial reading of 6. 2 and described the intensity of the quake as strong. Endi