A magnitude 7 undersea earthquake put parts of Latin America on tsunami alert.

The powerful quake rattled El Salvador's Pacific coast on Thursday (Friday morning, NZ time), but the country's civil defence agency said there were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

Soon after the quake, Lina Pohl, the country's environment minister, said there was a tsunami alert, with the possibility of waves 3 metres high along the coast. Nicaragua, which was also close to the epicentre, also reported a tsunami alert.

However, by 9.30am (NZ time) the threat of a tsunami had passed.



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The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake was about 149 kilometres south-southwest of the port of El Triunfo, El Salvador.

El Triunfo is located about 80km southeast of San Salvador, the capital, where the quake was felt strongly.

Kiwi Anna Stout was in El Salvador and felt the quake.

"It lasted what seemed about 15 seconds and was pretty strong where we are. No damage from what we have seen. We're inland in Canton El Espino, San Pedro Perulapan, Cuscatlan."

Fellow Kiwi Jared Green was also in El Salvador for the quake.

"I am in San Salvador at the moment. It's a fair way to the north of the epicentre (180km) and took place a long way out to sea. No reports of local damage at this point in time on the news. Lasted about a minute, and a tsunami warning has been issued. It felt like it lasted about a minute and was slow and rolling."

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declared a state of emergency due to the quake and Hurricane Otto, which landed on the country's southeastern coast earlier on Thursday, his spokeswoman said.

"We were serving lunch to the mps and the earthquake started and we felt that it was very strong," said Jacqueline Najarro, a 38-year-old food seller at the Congress in San Salvador.

"We were scared."

Earlier on Thursday, the Category 2 Hurricane Otto hit land near the southeastern coast of Nicaragua, where thousands had already been evacuated away from vulnerable coastal areas and into shelters.