A 4.8 magnitude earthquake has struck the state of New South Wales, shattering windows and toppling a chimney.

The quake – downgraded from a magnitude 5 – struck Denman, about three hours north of Sydney in the upper Hunter region, at 12.02pm on Friday, with a depth of 10km.

More than 2,000 people reported feeling tremors, including some as far away as 200km in Sydney. People also reported feeling it as far south as Canberra, as far north as Armidale and as far west as Dubbo.

According to New South Wales police, the State Emergency Service responded to reports of minor damage to infrastructure, but there were no reports of major damage to infrastructure or buildings.

The SES received 21 reports of minor damage to infrastructure within two hours of the quake. A spokesman said windows had been smashed in a building in Muswellbrook and there were reports of a chimney falling from a house in Maitland.

The SES is contacting dam owners in the Hunter region to ensure the integrity of the dams.

According to Geoscience Australia’s map, the earthquake was felt strongest about 20 minutes’ drive from Denman in and around Muswellbrook.

A woman in Muswellbrook said there were several shocks around midday.

“There were two (and it was) not just one quake, it was a massive quake,” she told Sydney radio 2GB.

“The whole house rattled, and about half a minute later it rattled again.

“I honestly thought it was my new cat knocking some things over.”

Someone in Scone, about 45 minutes’ drive from Denman, wrote on social media that the quakes had cracked the walls.

A man who lives more than three hours’ drive away in Cranebrook in Sydney’s west also felt several tremors but said the quake was “not huge”.

A number of Sydney residents took to social media to express their disbelief that they had just felt an earthquake.

“Did we just… have a mini earthquake???” someone wrote on X.

“Earthquake in Bondi. That’s a first!” wrote another.

The Seismology Research Centre said several aftershocks followed the quake, with the largest aftershock at 12:15 p.m., with a magnitude of 2.7.

According to the Meteorological Office, there was no tsunami risk from the earthquake.