struck 9km (5.6 miles) from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood. It hit at 06:25 local time (13:25 GMT), US officials said.
It was the strongest earthquake in Los Angeles since the last aftershocks from the 1994 Northridge quake,a government scientist said.
Dr Lucy Jones of the US Geological Survey (USGS) told the local CBS broadcaster there was a 5% chance another strong quake would strike within the next three days.
USGS seismologist Robert Graves said it was unusual for a quake of that magnitude to strike a large population centre.
"This is reminder we live in earthquake country," he said.There were no immediate reports of injuries, though many Los Angeles area residents said the quake had frightened them out of bed.
"It felt like a bomb going off underneath our house,"resident George McQuade told Associated Press news agency.
"Nothing was damaged, but it sure woke everyone up. It was an eye-opener."
Yvonne Villanueva told broadcaster KTLA she was getting ready for the morning and "all of a sudden I felt it jolt".
"You always have the big one in the back of your head,"she said.
The San Andreas fault, on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, runs directly through California, and the western US state has long braced for a devastating quake.
The Northridge quake, a 6.7-magnitude temblor, left at least 60 people dead. A 6.9 quake in San Francisco five years earlier killed 67 people.
Los Angeles was shaken up this morning, startling celebrities who woke up and
posted their reactions on Twitter early and often.
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