A 5.7 mag­ni­tude earth­quake struck in wa­ters north­east of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic late Mon­day, caus­ing mi­nor dam­age.

Of­fi­cials in neigh­bour­ing Puer­to Ri­co said the quake left some neigh­bour­hoods in the north­west town of Utu­a­do with­out pow­er.

The quake hit some 48 miles (77 kilo­me­tres) north-north­east of Pun­ta Cana, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, at a depth of 42 miles (about 68 kilo­me­tres), ac­cord­ing to the U.S. Ge­o­log­i­cal Sur­vey.

At least a dozen af­ter­shocks have oc­curred since then, the agency said.

Puer­to Ri­co and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic are lo­cat­ed in a high seis­mic ac­tiv­i­ty zone, giv­en that the North Amer­i­can Plate and the north­east cor­ner of the Caribbean plate meet in that area. —SAN JUAN, Puer­to Ri­co (AP)