An earthquake shakes the Los Angeles area as wildfires rage nearby

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As wildfires raging in the mountains cast an orange glow behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, Southern California residents were jolted awake Thursday by another reminder of Mother Nature's might.

It was an all-too-familiar feeling for locals when a 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area, unleashing boulders onto a Malibu road, shaking Santa Monica's 1909 wooden pier and waking some people from bed. No injuries or damages were immediately reported.

The quake happened as the region has been dealing with three major wildfires burning east of Los Angeles that torched dozens of homes and forced thousands to evacuate. The blazes erupted during a blistering heat wave that has just subsided.

“It’s a garden-variety Southern California earthquake,” California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it was centered 4 miles (7 kilometers) north of Malibu and was about 7 miles (11 kilometers) below the surface. The jolt was felt as far as 45 miles (72 kilometers) away in Orange County, where people reported items moving in their homes. It was followed by several smaller aftershocks.

Officials around the region said authorities were surveying for damage, but had not found anything major.

Malibu Councilmember Bruce Silverstein said he has lived in the community for 13 years and this was the hardest quake yet, but nothing broke.

“Our house shook for about two or three seconds. I was concerned the windows were going to pop,” Silverstein said.

A camera at the 115-year-old Santa Monica Pier, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Malibu, showed several seconds of intense shaking during the quake. Several morning newscasts also captured the earthquake live as cameras shook in television studios.

A crew was working on clearing large boulders that rolled onto Malibu Canyon Road, near the epicenter, KTLA-TV reported

The earthquake occurred closest to the Malibu fault, but was also near the Anacapa fault, Jones said. Earthquakes below magnitude 5.0 are too small to be definitively associated with large faults that are mapped at the earth’s surface.

Rene Vasquez, manager at The Country Kitchen breakfast place in Malibu, said the shaking lasted a few seconds and kitchen staff ducked outside as a precaution.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Vasquez said. “Thank God nothing fell.”

At a Starbucks on the Malibu coast, surfer Albert Daniel was drinking coffee and wondered if the glass ceiling might come crashing onto him. Afterward, he was hoping for some big waves.

“It's actually pretty calm," Daniel said. “We did get a bunch of sets coming in but they were very small.”

Trudy Novicki, who was visiting from San Clemente, was about to meditate on the balcony of her hotel room when she felt the shake.

“I thought a truck had run into the building,” she said. Her daughter, who was visiting from Florida, said it was her first earthquake and thought it was a train.

People, including several celebrities, took to social media to post they were awakened by a jolt.

Hotel heiress and media personality Paris Hilton wrote on X, “That #Earthquake was scary.” Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian posted: “Damn that was a big one.”

Some residents said they were alerted by the state’s earthquake early warning system.

A number of quakes have been felt in the area in recent months, including a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in August that rattled nerves from the Los Angeles area to San Diego, swaying buildings, knocking items off shelves and setting off car alarms. The temblor caused a pipe to burst at the ornate 1927 Pasadena City Hall building.

In February, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake was felt in Malibu that occurred south of Thursday’s earthquake.

Thursday’s event was the 14th earthquake sequence of magnitude 4.0 in Southern California this year. While this is above the average of eight to 10 per year in the past few decades, it’s too soon to tell whether the increased activity is statistically significant, said Jones, the Caltech seismologist. The previous highest number was 13 earthquakes of this size in 1988.

The recent bout of quakes does not indicate whether a larger, more destructive earthquake is arriving soon, but residents should be prepared for more aftershocks. There is a 1 in 20 chance that another earthquake of 4.7 magnitude or higher will occur, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Morgan Page told the Los Angeles Times.

Taxin reported from Orange County. Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco also contributed.

The Pacific coastline is shown Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Pacific coastline is shown Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Pacific coastline is shown Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A person fishes on the pier Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

The Malibu Pier stretches onto the ocean Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

A visitor walks on the pier Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

The Pacific coastline is shown Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

The Pacific coastline is shown Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Visitors walk on the pier Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Malibu, Calif., following a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the area. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

FILE - This aerial view shows the Malibu Pier in Malibu, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy" Combs was expected to appear before a federal judge in New York on Tuesday after his indictment on undisclosed criminal charges.

The music mogul was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

The indictment detailing the charges was expected to be unsealed Tuesday morning, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, called the new indictment an “unjust prosecution.”

“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said in a statement late Monday.

Combs, 54, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.

In November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.

The suit was settled in one day but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”

Combs and his attorneys, however, denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”

“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.

A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.

Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.

In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.

This story has been corrected to show that Combs' age is 54, not 58.

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

FILE - Host Sean "Diddy" Combs presents the revolt black excellence award at the Billboard Music Awards, May 15, 2022, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

Sean 'Diddy' Combs is expected in court after New York indictment

Sean 'Diddy' Combs is expected in court after New York indictment

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)