'Windows rattled' as small earthquake hits Manchester

Manchester has been hit by an earthquake - though not too many people seem to have felt it.

Although only measuring a magnitude of 1.4 on the Richter scale, experts from the British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed that sensors picked up the tremor in the Cheetham Hill area at 8.58pm on Wednesday after being contacted by residents.

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Experts say the quake was around 3km below the Earth's surface.

The BGS confirmed that following the tremor, they received two separate reports from residents who had experienced it not far away in Middleton.

David Galloway from the BGS, who is based in Edinburgh said: "An earthquake of that size normally wouldn't be felt. We weren't expecting any reports. It was nothing like on the scale of the earthquakes in Manchester in 2002 where there were hundreds felt, the largest I believe was 3.2 over the period of three or four months. Quite a lot of earthquakes were felt in the area."

He said that on average 200-300 earthquakes were recorded in the UK each year, with the most active areas being in north-west Scotland and the Welsh borders.

However, only one or two are felt each month by members of the public because they are so small.

Mr Galloway added: "A person who contacted us reported that their windows rattled and the other said they felt their house shake. They will have felt their house shake gently because it's not being felt strongly, but they did feel something."

Beck Godfrey, 36, from Middleton was one of the few who did feel the shudder.

She took to Twitter after feeling the tremor whilst watching repeats of Coldplay at Glastonbury and said she felt "a big shake".

Mrs Godfrey described it: "Like a thud or band. Thought a car may have crashed outside but we looked and all fine. Me and my husband looked at one another and I said 'was that an earthquake?'.

"We both agreed it probably was something like that. I immediately looked on Twitter but nothing was reported until this morning."

It is not the first time the couple have experienced an earthquake.

They said they were woken by a quake several years ago when living in nearby Failsworth.

The largest earthquake to be recorded in the UK was in the North Sea off East Anglia in June 1931, which had a magnitude of 6.1.

Mr Galloway said that the BGS welcomed reports of possible earthquakes from members of the public because it helped with their research.