An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit New Zealand's North Island on Monday afternoon.

The quake, which occurred at 1:05 pm local time (00:05 GMT) Monday, was centered 15 km east of Tokoroa and was 199 km deep, New Zealand government geological agency GNS Science reported.

No causalities have been reported.

The quake was felt widely around lower and central North Island and Hawke's Bay.

GNS Duty seismologist John Ristau said the quake was felt so widely due to the way energy from deep earthquakes traveled.

"Large deep earthquakes like that tend to be felt a long distance away from the epicenter rather than close-by," he said. " It takes some distance for the energy to travel up to the surface. "