Parts of UK hit by 5.1 magnitude earthquake as people wake to homes ‘rattling’
Parts of Scotland were rocked by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake early this morning.
Alarmed locals woke up to ‘shaking and rumbling sounds’ while lying in bed at 5.30am.
They said their windows and beds were ‘rattled for minutes’ by the tremors off the coast of the north east of Shetland.
It struck 10km beneath the earth’s surface in the Norwegian Sea, according to the United States Geological Survey.
But tremors were felt far and wide – including in Shetland, Ellon, Stonehaven, Helmsdale, Inverurie, Lairg, Huntly, Banff and Fraserburgh.
One report to The British Geological Survey came from Aberdeen – more than 311 miles from the epicentre.
Ryan Thomson, who lives in Wadbister, Shetland, said he woke up to something that sounded like a ‘low flying jet’.
He said: ‘I initially woke up with the sound which was very similar to a very low flying jet or extremely loud thunder, it wasn’t until I saw the lightshade moving that I clicked that this could be a small earthquake.
‘There wasn’t much movement here, I believe other parts of Shetland felt that more, but the noise was extremely loud and quite alarming.
‘Earthquakes are of course very rare but not unheard of here in Shetland.
‘There was one around five years ago in a similar place, but this was certainly the loudest and most noticeable one I’ve ever experienced in Shetland.’
Someone else who felt the quake described it as ‘three waves of vibration in about three seconds’.
Meanwhile, another person said they ‘felt it as well as heard it, enough to wake me up’.
More than 70 people in the UK reported the earthquake, said to have lasted around two minutes.
It comes after a 2.8 magnitude earthquake struck the West Midlands in February.
One resident said it ‘was like a wardrobe had fallen over or an explosion blast against the window’.
Another earthquake measuring 3.6 in magnitude was recorded in the North Sea in January.
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