Shakey wakey: Home Counties left quaking by 3:40am tremor

HUNDREDS received a rude awakening yesterday as an earthquake hit the Home Counties in the early hours.

The tremor was centred on the village of Newdigate in Surrey, fewer than ten miles from Gatwick Airport, the British Geological Survey said.

Residents reported being woken up by bangs and rumbles in nearby Epsom, Redhill, Reigate and Horley. Some called the police, with one reporting a plane had crashed while another feared they were being burgled.

The tremor is the strongest of four felt in Newdigate in the last fortnight and follows a ‘swarm’ of them reported in the area last summer.

Its epicentre was just a few miles from oil and gas exploration sites including Horse Hill and Brockham Well. However, the BGS said there was no evidence that drilling in the area may have triggered the quake.

Redhill resident Tom Livermore said: ‘Only the second time I have ever felt a quake. But last night’s woke us both up as whole house was shaking.’

The earthquake at 3.42am yesterday measured 3.1 in magnitude. The BGS recorded a 2.0 magnitude tremor on February 19, and 2.4 and 0.2 on February 14.

Stephen Hicks, seismologist at Imperial College London, said: ‘All these earthquakes are occurring in exactly the same location at a shallow depth of 2km.’

He said there was ‘still no available evidence which points towards the triggering by man-made activities’ and added: ‘It is most likely that these earthquakes are natural.’

Britain’s largest recorded onshore earthquake took place in Lleyn, North Wales, in 1984, with a magnitude of 5.4.