Madrid/Lisbon - An earthquake registering 6.3 points on the Richter scale Monday rocked the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, but no injuries or significant damage were reported.
The quake had its epicentre in the Atlantic about 200 kilometres offshore from the southern Portuguese coastal town Cabo de Sao Vicente.
It prompted hundreds of people to run from their offices or homes in Seville and Huelva in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, where it was the strongest earthquake in more than a decade.
Andalusian emergency services received dozens of calls reporting the tremor, but none of the callers was aware of injuries or damage.
The quake was felt as far as Lisbon and Madrid, where chairs moved in high office towers. It was also observed in Moroccan localities including Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh, according to the national news agency MAP.
Portuguese and Moroccan reports said the earthquake caused no injuries or damage.
Southern Spain frequently has small earthquakes, but such a powerful tremor was unusual, according to the National Geographic Institute.
The quake was, however, deemed too weak to produce a tsunami.
An earthquake of the same magnitude killed more than 5,000 people on Java last May.
