KENT residents who might have been looking forward this weekend to warm weather, a spot of gardening awoke yesterday to their homes being shaken by an earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale.

While it was a minor earthquake by international standards, it was one of the more alarming tremors to damage Kent since a reported tsunami in 1580. Power supplies were cut, chimney bricks fell into the streets and cracks opened across buildings.

"I was getting dressed when the whole house swayed," said Anned Gould, 36. "Then I heard the chimney coming off and sliding down the front of the house.

"When I went outside, it looked as though a splan had skimmed the rooftops as most of the chimneys had fallen down."

Gould was one of nine Folkestone residents from two families were expected to stay overnight in a church hall run by the Salvation Army and Shepway council. Another four people wer accommodated at local hotels.

By last night, 38 houses had been inspected for structural damage with another 80 due for checks today.

Seismologists said the epicentre of the quake was about seven miles off the coast of Dover and was caused by a series of faults in the English Channel. Nobody was seriously injured but emergency services responded to more than 200 calls.

Ricky Flood, 58, was 20ft up a ladder cleaning windows in Folkestone town centre when he heard a rumble and the ground started shaking beneath him just after 8.15am. He held tight and hoped for the best.

“I thought the very least I could expect then was to break my back and at worst I could be dead if I fell," he said. "My first thought was to grab on to the window sill but by that moment the tremors had started.”

Across Folkestone, the town worst hit, residents were baffled as to what was happening as their houses shook, plaster came down from the ceilings and ornaments fell from sideboards. Some thought their homes had been hit by a runaway vehicle, others that there had been an attack on the Channel tunnel.

Paul Stanhope, 31, who lives in Pavilion Road with his girlfriend and two children, said: “The bed was moving violently and all the perfume and make-up from our bedroom shelves just fell off. “Everything in the bathroom cupboards ended up in the bath. Our children were screaming.”

Vic Thorogood, 47, a fire-fighter in Folkestone, was enjoying a morning off with his two children, Abbey and Alex, when the earthquake hit. “I heard a huge whooshing sound behind me and black smoke and soot started billowing out of the living room.

“I could hear the kids screaming from the living room and as I walked to the entrance of the room I could not see anything for thick smoke and soot. I was very shaken and worried about the children.”

Homes in about five streets in Folkestone were affected by the earthquake and one person was taken to hospital with minor head and neck injuries.

Eurotunnel services were not affected. The tunnel was designed to withstand the effects of an earthquake and checks indicated that there had been no structural damage. Some other trains were delayed for an additional 20 minutes.

There was evidence that the earthquake might have hit other parts of the country. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said a crack measuring 1,000 yards had opened up along the cliff face in Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire. “If the crack gets any bigger, it could lead to quite a large landslide,” said a coastguard spokesman.

The earthquake was the biggest to hit Britain since Dudley, in the West Midlands, was shaken by a quake of magnitude five in 2002. It also felled chimney pots.

Roger Musson, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said yesterday’s tremor originated from a complex network of faults under the Channel.

He said: “There have been earthquakes in this location before. Two of them have been some of the biggest earthquakes ever to affect Britain.

“The first was in 1382 and in 1580 a quake with a magnitude [on the Richter scale] of about six killed two people in London.” The 1580 earthquake was followed by a surge in sea levels that some experts believe was a tsunami.

Earthquakes are relatively common in Britain, but the tremors are usually so slight that they are not noticeable.

Additional reporting: Will Iredale, Rob Booth and Steven Swinford

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