Wellington region struck by magnitude 3.9 afternoon earthquake

The Wellington region has been rattled by an afternoon quake on Sunday.

The magnitude 3.9 earthquake struck 5km north-east of Lower Hutt at a depth of 35km at 4:20pm.

"An afternoon shake for those in the Greater Wellington region," GeoNet says on Twitter.

"A M3.9 Earthquake with 'light' shaking has occurred in Lower Hutt and we have received 6000 felt reports."

So far, 2757 have described it as 'light', 331 as 'moderate' and 18 as 'strong'.  Two people have described it as 'severe'.