No major damage, injuries reported as 4.4 magnitude quake strikes near LA

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- An earthquake on Monday afternoon hit southern California, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed.

The epicenter of the 4.4 magnitude earthquake that shook the Los Angeles region early Monday afternoon was located near LA's Highland Park neighborhood just a few miles north of the city's downtown.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said preliminarily that no injuries had been reported and no major damage was found on local infrastructure, later re-confirmed Monday afternoon by LA Mayor Karen Bass .

"Following the 4.4M earthquake this afternoon, our @LAFD has identified no damage in the City of Los Angeles and is resuming normal operations," Bass posted to social media just before 5 p.m. local time.

"Earthquakes can happen any time," the mayor said as she urged LA residents to prepare for emergency situations.

The 4.4 came after two smaller quakes -- a 1.7 and 1.3 magnitude -- were recorded over the last day, the USGS says.

The governor's office posted to social media in that afternoon it was monitoring the situation in southern California and that the state's office of emergency services was "coordinating with local authorities to assess any potential damage."

Earlier, the local LAPD had warned Los Angeles residents to "be prepared for aftershocks" right after the more "significant" 4.4 magnitude earthquake. It was reported as far away as Rancho Cucamonga, Newport Beach and Victorville. Quick, successive and violent jolts were described as being felt in Pasadena.

However, there is less than a 10% chance that a 5.0 mag or higher aftershock would hit over the next week, according to Cal Tech , adding how many fault lines exist in the area but the earthquake was believed to be located along the lower Elysian Park Fault

Monday's quake was the biggest one in a series of other smaller earthquakes recently recorded in the southern California region in recent weeks, including a 5.2-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 7 centered near Lamont with a 4.4 aftershock, and was the largest centered in Los Angeles County since February's 4.6 magnitude near Malibu.

It arrived on the first day of school for the more than 600,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students -- the nations' second-largest school district -- and was recorded as it happened on camera with ESPN's Malika Andrews while hosting NBA Today in a Los Angeles television studio.

"We felt it here in headquarters," Los Angeles Fire Captain Erik Scott told Los Angeles Daily News . "It jolted everyone."

In January, magnitude 4.1 offshore earthquake rattled southern California on New Year's Day, seismologists reported.

"When the ground shakes in L.A., we have firefighters in all 106 neighborhood fire stations provide a complete and strategic survey of the area," he added.