'MINOR' QUAKE HITS MIDLANDS

Police received reports of the tremor affecting the area between Malvern and Worcester.

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: "It was a very minor tremor. We have had no reports of any damage whatsoever.

"We have had about 15 to 20 calls from members of the public at most."

A spokesman for the British Geological Survey said: "We have had quite a few calls reporting an earthquake so it seems like it is something.

"The seismologists are looking in to it right now."

A statement released by the BGS said the earthquake measured 3.6 on the Richter Scale. It said the earthquake's "locality" was Bromyard in Herefordshire.

According to reports given by residents to the BGS, the earthquake felt like "a thump as if someone had jumped off the bed upstairs".

Another report described it as a "loud boom noise, as though something extremely heavy had fallen on the wood floor above my head".

The statement from the BGS added: "The strength of the shaking has been described as moderate, enough to make furniture shake and windows or crockery rattle. Some reports indicate that people were woken from sleep and a few were frightened."