国际英语新闻:Earthquake hits Australia's Queensland

SYDNEY, July 30 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake hit the populous area of the southeastern part of Australia's Queensland state on Thursday morning, lasting 15 seconds and shaking and rocking buildings.

No damage has so far been reported, but residents flooded talk- back radio and social media describing how their homes rocked and household items fell to the floor.

Social media went into overdrive just before 10 a.m. local time on Thursday, with people saying they felt tremors that shook their houses in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay and Gold Coast hinterland.

Earthquake monitoring body Geoscience Australia confirmed a magnitude 5.3 quake occurred at 9:41 a.m. local time.

Australian Eastern Standard Time in the Coral Sea, off Hervey Bay, at a depth of 35 km.

The Bureau of Meteorology said there is no tsunami threat to the Australian east coast.