( dpa ) - A strong earthquake shook the western US state of Nevada early Thursday morning, the US Geological Society in Washington said.
The 6.0 magnitude quake at 6:16 am (1416 GMT) had its epicentre in the north-east corner of the state 17 kilometres from the small town of Wells and 244 kilometres west of Salt Lake City, Utah, the USGS said.
The USGS had initially reported the quake as measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, which would have made it the strongest quake to hit the state since 1954.
Several collapsed buildings were reported in Wells, which has a population of 1,330, but there were no injuries reported, said William Webb, an emergency official for Elko County.
Nevada has the third-highest number of potentially damaging earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.0 or greater, among all US states, after Alaska and California, according to the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada-Reno.