BREAKING: Earthquake ROCKS New Zealand near ACTIVE volcano Mount Ruapehu

The magnitude 4.4 quake hit at lunchtime, 12:51pm NZDT, and 1018 locals reported having felt it, according to the New Zealand earthquake commission.

One individual reported having felt the quake in Wellington and bizarrely someone as far away as Christchurch has also logged the tremor.

The epicentre for the earthquake was close to Mount Ruapehu which is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone.

The volcano last erupted on September 25 2007 but in April 2016 local monitoring site Geonet issued a volcanic alert reporting that Crater Lake’s temperature has risen to a worrying level.

On 11 May 2016 the volcanic alert level was raised to level 2 and the aviation colour code was changed from green to yellow.

More to follow…