About 125 miles north of Los Angeles a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck late Friday rattling buildings and cutting power supplies. No report of deaths has yet been reported.
According to US seismologists the quake was deep near the small city of Ridgecrest at 0319 GMT. It was 11 times stronger than the July 4 (Independence Day) foreshock and is said to be part of an earthquake sequence.
The tremor was so strong that it was felt in Los Angeles too where helicopters and vehicles by fire department were deployed to keep a check for the need of emergency aid on property damage and injured residents.
The last such powerful earthquake in southern California occurred in 1999 when a 7.1-magnitude rattled Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base.
LA police chief Michael Moore tweeted rail and bus services were not affected by the powerful quake and services are functioning smoothly.
A resident of the area said the shaking stopped for about a minute initially and again started rolling.
A press conference of Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones warned Thursday about a chance of earthquake in the location in next few days and it will be bigger one.
He later tweeted, “You know we say we 1 in 20 chance that an earthquake will be followed by something bigger? This is that 1 in 20 time.”
