Residents in the capital of Port Vila said buildings shook heavily for about 10 seconds when the quake struck at 10:01 a.m. local time.
“It started slowly, but became more and more intense as it went along,” New Zealand tourist Caroline Marsh told Agence France Presse.
She was having breakfast when the shaking began, and described the quake as a low rumbling, almost growling, movement that was quite scary.
The operations manager at the Melanesian Port Vila hotel, Joe Betsesai, was tending to the garden at the time of the quake.
He told Radio New Zealand International he didn’t know it was an earthquake until he started to feel the “roaring coming closer and closer” and felt the earth shaking under his feet.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which measured the strength at magnitude 5.7, said the quake struck beneath the Coral Sea at a depth of about 40 miles from an epicenter 20 miles west of Port Vila. Regional seismological reports placed the magnitude at 6.2.
Vanuatu, which has a population of about 215,000, was hit by two powerful temblors last month, including one registering a magnitude of 6.5 on June 2.