MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Quake shakes Britain, second largest since 1984

An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale shook England early on Wednesday morning.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) initially gave the magnitude for the 12.56am earthquake as 5.3 on the Richter scale but has now said it was closer to 5.3. The quake's epicentre was near Market Rasen, in Lincolnshire, but people across England said they felt buildings shaking shortly before 1am. Many said the tremors had been strong enough to wake them. Seismologist Dr Brian Baptie of the BGS said: "This is a significant earthquake for the UK and will have been widely felt across England and Wales." The BGS said it records around 200 earthquakes in the UK each year - an eighth of which are able to be felt by residents. It said earthquakes of this size occur in the mainland UK around every 30 years but are more common in offshore areas. Wednesday's quake is the largest since 1984 when an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale shook the Lleyn Peninsula of north Wales and was widely felt across England and Wales. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) claimed that, while the event was "light to moderate" on a world scale, it was "very significant", given the UK's relatively uneventful seismic history. Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information service, said: "It was a light to moderate event in relation to what has happened in Indonesia recently. But what is interesting about this event is that it was in an area where you would not expect it. "In an aseismic area like this it is very significant. The UK usually has minor activity - it's not particularly seismic and usually falls in the range of two to three (on the Richter scale). "Usually something in the range of four to five is what you would expect closer to a tectonic boundary - Indonesia or California for example."