MACCLESFIELD was hit by an earthquake which affected most of England during the early hours of this morning.

Emergency services were inundated with calls from people who described being woken by their homes shaking violently.

The tremor, which lasted between 10 and 20 seconds, measured 4.7 on the Richter scale according to initial reports from the United States Geological Survey.

It happened just before 1am today and the epicentre was reported to be 15 miles north east of Lincolnshire.

Emergency services reported that there had been a significant number of calls from all areas.

There were no reports of any injuries.

Brian Platt, 73, of Jodrell Street, said: “I was awake when it happened, and I heard a tremendous thump followed by a roaring noise. My bed shook and the earthquake nearly threw me out of it, I wasn‘t very pleased about it. My house felt like it was twisting.

“I experienced the last earthquake which was about 20 years ago, and this one seemed much worse. After it had finished I just went back to bed. Fortunately, I haven‘t seen any damage.”

George Dutton, 70, of Gilchrist Avenue, said: “I did feel the bed shaking but I thought it was just my wife waking me up because of my snoring. I remember the last time I felt an earthquake because I was at work.”

George‘s wife, Brenda, 80, said: “I was completely asleep, I didn‘t feel a thing.”

Melanie Baxter, 39, of Stanford Road, said: “It woke me up, it was a bit of a shock – I have never experienced anything like that before. To be honest, I just went to sleep after it had finished.  You don‘t expect anything like that to happen in England.”

Chris Collier, 18, of Ash Grove, said: “My whole room was shaking, it was definitely a shock. I thought it was my mum banging around, it is a surprise that something like this would happen around here.”

Janet Shields, 36, of Langley and mother of 18 month old Logan, said: “I was awake, and could feel it but it didn‘t wake my baby up, he just slept right through it. It was weird but at least it will give us something to talk about.”

Jessica Keefe, 21, works in Claire‘s Accessories in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, said: “I thought that it was my mum banging around at first but it woke me up anyway, and then I just went back to sleep, although it was a bit scary.”

Tom Barratt, 70, of Rainow, said: “I thought something had happened in the house, it is the first time I have ever experienced an earthquake. I am going to have to have a look at the house to make sure that there isn‘t any cracks in it.”

In other parts of the country there were reports of structural damage and power failures.

A spokeswoman for the North West Ambulance Service said: "We felt the tremors here in our control room in Anfield.

"We have had a few of our vehicles reporting that they felt the tremors as far as Macclesfield and up towards Southport."

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