Earthquake shakes Britain

The largest earthquake to hit Britain for 10 years struck large parts of England and Wales today, triggering at least one aftershock. The quake, which measured 4.8 on the Richter scale, hit at 12.54am. The aftershock, which measured 2.7, struck at 4.32am.

Both tremors had their epicentres "right under the city of Birmingham" and people as far apart as south and west Wales, Northamptonshire, south Yorkshire and Oxfordshire felt the main quake, which shook homes, broke windows and set off alarms.

Emergency services across the region were deluged with calls, but there were no reports of serious injury.

Glenn Ford of the British Geological Survey (BGS) said the earthquake reached 4.8 on the Richter scale.

"It's an extremely large earthquake in UK terms but not large in world terms - we'd only classify it as a light earthquake. This would have been right under the city of Birmingham itself and we've already had reports of the fire brigade being called out to fallen chimneys."

The earthquake would have lasted for at least 10-15 seconds, he said.

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