JUST IN - Powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake strikes off the coast of Cyprus.

The quake was felt in Turkey, Israel, and Egypt.

A powerful quake struck off the coast of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, the US Geological Survey reports

The tremor was felt across Cyprus and around the region with reports from as far away as Turkey, Israel and Lebanon, according to the USGS.

But there was a low likelihood of casualties and damage from the quake, it said in a preliminary assessment.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre measured the tremor at 6.5 magnitudes at a depth of 51 km.

Cyprus lies in a secondary earthquake-prone zone, but tremors of such magnitude are uncommon.

The biggest quake in recent years was a magnitude 6.8 in 1996, which killed two people in Paphos along the west coast.

In 1953, a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 40 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, mostly in the Paphos region.