Houses shook and swayed as New Zealand was hit by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake while still reeling from its worst storm in 35 years.

The “long and strong” quake stuck on Wednesday night, with more than 60,000 Kiwis registering the tremor to monitoring agency GeoNet.

Many were caught off-guard and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said his first reaction was “unprintable”.

“I was looking out the window for a plague of locusts,” he said, as reported by news outlet Stuff.

It comes as New Zealanders made more than 1400 reports of missing people following Cyclone Gabrielle, with police holding grave fears for several.

Most of the missing from Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti are being attributed to telecommunications breakdowns.

The death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle rose to five as emergency workers surveyed the destruction from New Zealand’s worst storm this century.

A fifth death was confirmed early on Thursday in the Gisborne region. Police believe the person was caught in floodwaters.

New Zealand media have detailed other eyewitness reports of bodies or missing people, which are yet to be confirmed.

More than 10,000 have been dislocated by the cyclone, with thousands spending the night at civil defence centres in hard-hit regions.

Tweet from @geonet

With resources of the National Emergency Management Agency already tied up in the cyclone aftermath, the agency was on alert for any quake destruction or tsunami threat.

The earthquake’s epicentre was about 75 kilometres north of Wellington, off the Kapiti Coast, and 48 kilometres deep.

New Zealanders all across the country felt the quake, with the strongest reports centred on Wellington, Paraparaumu, Palmerston North and Whanganui.

“We were up off the couch and under the doorframe with that in Whanganui,” Leigh-Marama McLachlan tweeted.

“Quite a shake in the Beehive,” tweeted Wellingtonian Henry Cooke, referencing the executive building next to parliament.

Wellington regional councillor Thomas Nash said the earthquake brought regional rail services to a temporary hold.

“Trains will be running at reduced speeds of 25km/h for now. No damage has been reported. Buses continue as normal,” he tweeted.

New Zealand lies on the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000-kilometre arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches girdling much of the Pacific Ocean.

Tweet from @itsrewahawkins