Tremor measuring 4.2 shakes Britain

COVENTRY, England -- An earthquake registering 4.2 on the Richter scale has struck central England.

Police said no one was injured in Saturday morning's tremor and no damage was caused, although dozens of people rang the emergency services.

The tremor, which happened at 5:23 a.m. local time (0423 GMT), was felt across the Midlands.

A Warwickshire police spokesman said the epicentre was the village of Budbrooke, near the town of Warwick.

It was the biggest tremor since April 1990 when one registering 5.1 on the Richter scale shook Shropshire, west of Warwickshire, a spokesman for the British Geological Survey (BSG) based in Edinburgh, Scotland said.

"A tremor measuring 4.2 is small in world terms but extremely large in UK terms," seismologist Glenn Ford said.

"Quakes of this size wake people up and cause houses to shake and people will have heard their doors and windows rattle."

The tremor is the 12th to be recorded by the BGS across Britain in two months, although the strongest of those -- at Arran, in Scotland -- measured only 2.1 on the Richter scale.

In a statement, the BGS, said: "We have received many reports (about the tremor) from the police, the media, the emergency planning officer and residents in Cheadle, Gloucester, Peterborough, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwick, Rugby, and Leamington Spa.

"Historically, a similar earthquake occurred near Tewksbury, some 50 km to the south west with a magnitude of 4.1 in 1768.

"More recently, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake was felt at Stratford-upon-Avon in May 1994, 17 km to the south west."

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British Geographical Survey

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