A 4.8 magnitude earthquake, which hit New York City Friday, also interrupted a United Nations Security Council meeting on the worsening situation in the war-ravaged Gaza.

As the ‘Save the Children’ representative, Janti Soeripto, was giving a moving description of the way Gaza children were impacted by the war, the tremor was felt in the building.

“Is that an earthquake?”, Ms Soeripto asked. After a pause, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who was sitting next to her, quipped, “You’re making the ground shake!” The rare earthquake’s epicentre was located near Lebanon, New Jersey.

East coast residents in New York reported hearing a booming sound and feeling their buildings shake, while social media users from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the east coast also reported feeling the quake.

There were no reports of significant damage, the New York Fire Department confirmed. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York posted on X, formerly Twitter: “A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York.

“My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.” In a video message, she warned residents to be aware of aftershocks and said that New Yorkers had not experienced an earthquake of that magnitude since 2011.

Registering magnitude 5.8, the August 2011 earthquake was the strongest quake to hit the east coast since the Second World War.