Mid-Canterbury was shaken by a violent 4.5-magnitude earthquake this morning.
The 10.27am quake was centred 30km west of Ashburton, barely 5km away from the small town of Mayfield, at a depth of 30km.
The quake was strongly felt in Ashburton and was felt as far away as Queenstown and Dunedin.
At Mayfield's store, the Udder Dairy, owner Gaye Monson said no customers were in the store at the time, just the three staff, and they wondered what was going on.
"Nothing fell off the shelves but the front door slammed. We looked at one another and thought who was that, or what was that, and there was no-one here,'' she said.
