Shaken, but not stirred | Your quake experiences

Britain was shaken by a huge earth tremor at 12.56am this morning which was felt by people from Yorkshire to the South Coast.

Thousands of people reported their homes being shaken violently and furniture moving and hundreds more took to the streets for safety and to check for damage.

The epicentre of the tremor, which measured 5.3 on the Richter scale according to the British Geological Survey, was centred on the village of Holton cum Beckering, about 15 miles northeast of Lincoln. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre was 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the Earth’s surface.

The tremor is the biggest in Britain since 1984 when north Wales was hit by a quake which registered at 5.4 on the Richter scale.

Glenn Ford, a senior seismologist at the British Geological Survey (BGS), said: “It’s an extremely large earthquake in UK terms but not large in world terms; we’d classify it only as a light earthquake."

People reported buildings as large as blocks of flats shaking for up to 30 seconds when the quake struck at 12:56:45.

There was damage to property and localised power cuts but no reported deaths or serious injuries.

Among the thousands who experienced the tremor was Ben Sweeting in Scunthorpe, who told The Times: “My whole house shook like it was going to fall over and it felt as if the whole roof was coming off. I thought a tree had been thrown into the roof by a tornado or something. Everyone in Scunthorpe is out on the streets now talking about it.”

Kevin Simons, 45, from Hannington near Northampton, said: “I was lying in bed, I had been there for about an hour, and the whole house shook, the whole house was moving.

"It lasted about 45 seconds. My wife was petrified. We thought the house was coming down, I knew it was an earthquake straight away.

"It was as strong as I have ever felt anywhere and I lived on the west coast of America for four years.”

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