Shaken, but not stirred, as ’quake hits Midlands

The tremor was reported across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Julian Bukits of the BSG said the earthquake happened at 5.20am and was “average” for the UK.

One resident in Groby, Leicestershire, told his local radio station: “It lasted at least 20 seconds and some DVDs fell off a shelf in my room.”

Another caller said: “It sounded like an underground train coming and everything wobbled, but nothing fell off shelves.”

Leicestershire Police said they had received no reports of any tremors or damage and had not been called out to any incidents.

A spokesman for the county’s fire and rescue service also said it had not received any calls reporting an earthquake.

The epicentre of the seismic activity was near Loughborough, Leicestershire, where residents would have felt a bang and a slight vibration.

Mr Bukits said that properties in the area, which has a history of earthquakes, would not have suffered any structural damage.

On October 28 2001 there was a 4.1 earthquake near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, which Mr Bukits described as “big by UK standards”.

Putting the quake into perspective, the expert said it was a million times weaker than the 8.9 earthquake which struck off the Japanese coast, causing a devastating tsunami in March 2011.

“Earthquakes generally have to be of 4.5 to 5 magnitude to cause damage,” he added.

Earthquakes in the UK are described as intraplate seismic activity, as they take place far from tectonic plate boundaries.

Mike Flood, 45, who lives in Loughborough with his family, felt the earthquake.

“I get up quite early. It was about 5.10am,” he said. “It was almost like a plane going over or an explosion in the distance.

“The house creaked – there was no house moving or pictures falling off the wall, but the house just creaked. It was strange: you know something’s happened and you know it’s not a normal thing.”

He said his teenage children were woken up by the quake.

“They were asking what it was, and I said ‘Oh, it could have been a plane or it might have been an earth tremor’, just to allay their fears. Our daughter is in the bedroom at the top of the house so she probably felt it a bit more.”