CANBERRA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Buildings in the central business district (CBD) of Darwin, the capital of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) have been evacuated after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake off Australia's north coast.

The quake occurred in the Banda Sea near Indonesia approximately 700 km northwest of Darwin on Monday morning.

It sparked evacuations across the city, including government buildings, the Indonesian consulate, hotels and the Royal Darwin Hospital.

Tremors were felt as far away as Katherine, a town of 6,000 people, a further 300 km from Darwin.

"Just before midday at 11:53 a.m. local time, we recorded a major 7.2 earthquake which occurred in the Banda Sea about 700 km north of Darwin," Jonathan Bathgate, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"It's certainly possible to get aftershocks from an earthquake of this sort of magnitude, it's very likely," Bathgate said.

"Whether there's a bigger earthquake to come in the sequence is something we don't know," Bathgate said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said that the earthquake did not pose a tsunami threat because at 207 km it was "too deep inside the earth".

Health researcher Isabella Marovich was working at Royal Darwin Hospital when the earthquake hit the city.

She told News Corp Australia that the shakes were so severe that a group of nurses were on their knees praying.

"I could see the awnings on the hospital building shaking," she said.

Chris Elders, an expert in plate tectonics and structural geology at Curtin University in Western Australia (WA), said that the earthquake was caused by Australia's tectonic plate moving north.

"Another large earthquake has struck Indonesia, and this time it was large enough to be felt in Darwin and other parts of northern Australia," he said in a media release.

"This particular earthquake was a result of the relentless northward movement of Australia towards Southeast Asia, it is moving north at about 7.7 centimeters per year, and part of the tectonic plate on which Australia sits has collided with Timor (-Leste) and Papua New Guinea," Elders said.

Australia is rarely hit by earthquakes. The most severe in recorded history was a 5.6-magnitude tremor that killed 13 people in New South Wales (NSW) in 1989.

Kellie Grainger, a city worker, was in her office on the third floor of a CBD building when it hit. She said that tremors "went for a few good minutes".

"There was a really noticeable tremor and it then slowly subsided, then there was another big tremor, the second one was definitely the worst of it," Grainger told the ABC.

"We definitely felt the significant sway and movement in the building, that's for sure," Grainger said.

Buildings also shook as far away as Cairns more than 1,600 km southeast of Darwin and over 2,200 km from the epicenter.

Mark Keowski was on the 15th floor of the Cairns Corporate Tower when tremors hit the city.

"The tables were swaying and knocking against the walls. We walked outside to see if everyone else had felt it and made the decision to get out," he said.

"It was swaying for a good 20 seconds," he added. Enditem

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