SYDNEY, Aug 16, (Xinhua): An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 hit near the east coast of Australia at 9:49 am local time on Saturday (2349 GMT Friday), said Geoscience Australia. Geoscience Australia reported that the epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was about 80 km west of Noosa and 250 km north of Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland.

People have reported feeling tremors as far north as Rockhampton in Queensland and as far south as the Glen Innes in the state of New South Wales. Danny Donald from Energex, southeast Queensland's electricity distribution network provider, was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying that crews were investigating outages near the earthquake's epicenter.

"In total, we've got around about 11,000 customers affected between the Fraser Coast, Burrum Heads, and Murgon," he said. Queensland Rail said services on all Brisbane city lines were running at lower speeds due to the tremor, and trains were delayed by up to 15 minutes.