AN earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale rocked Sandwich in Kent this morning, shaking homes and waking people up.
The tremor struck just before 3am, its epicentre around nine miles beneath the historic coastal town.
More than 800 reports were received by the British Geological Survey as stunned residents in nearby Margate, Ramsgate and Canterbury felt the ground shake beneath their homes.
Even people in Norwich, Norfolk — a hundred miles away — reported tremors.
Musician Jake West, in Canterbury, said it felt like “a giant just bounced on my roof”.
And Iain Buchanan, of Ramsgate, thought a bomb had gone off.
He said: “Lying in bed when the house suddenly shook. Thought something had collapsed outside, so got up to check. Weird experience anyway.
“I actually thought it was an explosion of some sort and not an earthquake.”
Many Brits took to social media to make light of the situation with humorous messages:
Kent Police said they were bombarded with calls, but no injuries or structural damage had been reported.
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, which monitors seismic activity across the continent, also recorded the earthquake at a depth of 9.5 miles underground .
One witness report on the centre’s website said the tremor had lasted between two and five seconds.
Melissa Budge, a resuscitation worker at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, said: “Me and the staff nurse both felt it whilst we were helping a patient back into bed.
“We both froze and looked at each other, meanwhile the patient had no idea what was going on around him, he didn’t feel or hear anything. I thought a bomb was going off. Scary.”
Carol Gadd, from Whitstable, said: “The floor shook and there was a loud tremor for about three seconds, although it seemed longer. Quite frightening — you don’t expect this in Whitstable.”
Simon Moores, of Westgate-on-Sea, said: “Seagulls took the air and started making a noise, dogs started barking, all the crockery started moving. It lasted for about ten seconds.
“This is something I’ve never felt before. It illustrates that when something of this magnitude happens in the middle of the night how vulnerable people are.”
Davie Galloway of the BGS said: “The quake was felt in a 18.6 mile radius around Ramsgate, but it was heard over 50 miles away.
“We do not get massive quakes, but stresses on the rocks and plate movement still cause around 200 a year in the UK.
“4.2 is quite significant for the UK, but it rises exponentially. In context, it is 260,000 times smaller than the recent one in Nepal.”
In January, a 2.9 magnitude tremor hit Winchester in Hampshire, while in April 2007, there was a 4.3 magnitude quake 16 miles north-east in Folkestone.