The Island’s Barbadian community has spoken of their relief to hear that family and friends back in their homeland were left unscathed by yesterday’s earthquake.

Michael Taylor, the vice president of the Barbados Association of Bermuda, revealed that the group’s president, Jacqueline Brenman, and former president, Judith Gill, were both in Barbados when the earthquake occurred.

“We have been in touch with them during the course of the day and reporting back to our members that there were no injuries and no major damage,” he said. “Our thoughts are obviously with everyone back in Barbados at the moment. A lot of people contacted me during the course of the day to find out any information they could.

“From what we have been told some people had to be evacuated from their offices but there was no serious damage. Everyone and everything seems OK, which is a relief.”

The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred out at sea 81 miles northeast of the island’s capital Bridgetown. It hit at 11.16am local time as Bermuda’s junior national squash team was preparing to travel to Barbados to compete in the 2015 Junior Caribbean Championships.

The ten-strong team, led by national team coach Runa Reta, arrived in Barbados last night where the competition is expected to take place as scheduled. Meanwhile, Bermuda resident David Gibbons, whose mother lives in Barbados, said that Barbadians were “taking it in stride”.

“I heard that they had to evacuate some buildings in parts of the country as a precaution, so that could be unnerving to people. My mother, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice much.

“During a previous earthquake, there was a bit of panic which led to some injury, but this time out, things appeared to be handled a bit better.

“It seems that this is becoming somewhat of a more frequent occurrence in the region, so hopefully the authorities have been prepared accordingly.”