PEOPLE sleeping soundly in their beds were shaken from their slumber as the largest earthquake to hit the UK in 24 years rocked Worcestershire.

Shaken and stirred residents said they were scared as tremors which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale caused buildings to vibrate for about 10 seconds just before 1am yesterday.

Paul Attwood, aged 40, of Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, said: "I was just sat on the sofa watching the news when it just felt like a low flying aircraft was going overhead. It was like a train going through the living room.

"I was sat on the sofa and I'm a big guy but it shook everything. By the time I thought this is scary' it stopped. It's the first time I have experienced anything like it."

The epicentre of the earthquake was near Market Rasen, in Lincolnshire, but the tremors were felt across the UK.

Clive Marshall-Lewis, aged 55, of Diglis, Worcester, said: "I was in a deep sleep in the middle of the night when I was woken up.

"I knew immediately there had been an earthquake because I have lived abroad in the Phillipines and experienced them there.

"The whole building shook but there doesn't seem to be any damage."

Jeff Coopey, of Old Northwick Lane, Northwick, Worcester, said: "My son Andrew fell asleep in front the television and he woke up and the sideboards were shaking. He thought he was dreaming."

Readers also logged on to your Worcester News' website www.worcesternews.co.uk to tell their stories. silvy1 wrote on our forum that she felt the house shake and saw her computer desk wobble. "I was talking to my boyfriend on the phone at the time, he was in Cheshire and he felt the tremors at the same time," she said.

"He told me that some things were falling off his shelf. The lady who lives next door to me told me her mirror fell off the wall. I find it all rather exciting."

Turkey Neck, Wuster, wrote he could not believe the media hype because there was little damage done and nobody seriously hurt.

"It really belittles the true destructive nature of earthquakes and the mass devestation and human life lost to these occurances," he said.

Both West Midlands Ambulance Service and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service received just two calls each in relation to the earthquake, but nobody was hurt.