Earthquake hits near San Jose

An earthquake measuring 5.9 has hit an area near the Costa Rican capital late on Friday, the US government reported.

The epicentre of the tremor, which occurred at 7:54pm on Friday (local time), was located 41 kilometres north north-west of San Jose, according to the US Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.