Earth moves for people in Luton and Dunstable
Quake wakes people in early hours
People living in Luton and Dunstable were woken by the earthquake that rocked England in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Despite the epicentre of the 5.3 magnitude quake being more than 130 miles away, near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, the ground shook across Bedfordshire shortly before 1am.
Theresa Sims, of Barton Hills, Luton, said: "I heard rattling and I thought something had fallen over in the loft, or it was something on the roof. The house was slightly shaking but I looked out of the window and couldn't see anything. It lasted just a few seconds."
But Professor James Crabbe, science expert at the University Of Bedfordshire, said people in Luton and Dunstable would not have felt the whole force of the natural disaster.
He said: "There wouldn't have been much, as we are quite some way from the epicentre. It would have been sort of shaking but very little damage."
Fire crews in the area said although they felt the quake, they received no emergency calls about it from local people.
A 48-year-old Dunstable mum said: "It felt like a terrific gust of wind was battering the building - the windows rattled and then suddenly the bed shook.
"It was just like someone had grabbed hold of the bed and shaken it really hard. The last time I remember anything like this was when the Buncefield explosion happened."
Prof Crabbe explained that an earthquake can, and does, happen anywhere at any time.
He said: "They are impossible to predict and this is one of the big problems. In the UK it's roughly every 30 years."
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