LOS ANGELES (AFP) — A mild earthquake shook parts of southern California on Sunday but there were no reports of injuries or serious damage, authorities said.
The 4.7 magnitude quake struck at 10.29 am local time (1729 GMT) about 81 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Los Angeles near Lake Elsinore, the US Geological Survey reported.
Witnesses near the quake's epicenter, which occurred near the Santa Ana Mountains, reported being jolted by the tremor but police and fire authorities said they had received no reports of injuries or damage.
"There were no injuries reported to us at this time," said Jody Hagemann, spokeswoman for the Riverside County Fire Department.
Seismologists believe there is a chance California will suffer a major earthquake due to movement in the San Andreas fault, which runs close by Los Angeles. Experts say the fault line causes a massive quake every 150 years. The last such disaster was in 1857.
In January 1994, a 6.7 magnitude quake in Northridge, near Chatsworth, was blamed for 72 deaths, more than 10,000 injuries and around 12.5 billion dollars worth of damage.
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