A "MINOR" earth tremor hit the UK on Sunday evening, police said.

The earthquake struck at 6pm, with police receiving reports of it affecting the area between Malvern and Worcester.

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: "It was a very minor tremor. We have had no reports of any damage whatsoever.

"We have had about 15 to 20 calls from members of the public at most."

A spokesman for the British Geological Survey said: "We have had quite a few calls reporting an earthquake so it seems like it is something.

"The seismologists are looking in to it right now."

A statement released by the BGS said the earthquake measured 3.6 on the Richter Scale. It said the earthquake's "locality" was Bromyard in Herefordshire. It was timed at 6.06pm.

According to reports given by residents to the BGS, the earthquake felt like "a thump as if someone had jumped off the bed upstairs".

Another report described it as a "loud boom noise, as though something extremely heavy had fallen on the wood floor above my head".

The statement from the BGS added: "The strength of the shaking has been described as moderate, enough to make furniture shake and windows or crockery rattle.

"Some reports indicate that people were woken from sleep and a few were frightened."

David Galloway, a seismologist at the BGS, said: "People have described it as a lorry crashing in to the side of their house and on analysis of our instruments there has been an earthquake of 3.6 on the Richter Scale.

"We record about 200 earthquakes a year but most go unnoticed by the general public. One or two a month are felt and this was quite widely felt.

"We have had no reports of any injuries and nor would we expect to. The only reports we are getting is maybe crockery has fallen but there is no significant damage.

"We don't really expect that much damage to occur with an earthquake of this size.

"There have been a few earthquakes in the UK where aftershocks have occurred but really we cannot tell if there will be any aftershocks. It's really a case of wait and see. We will continue monitoring in the area."

He added: "The cause of the earthquake is that we live on a dynamic planet and these plates are moving all over the world and this creates stress in the rocks.

"We are in the middle of one of these plates so we don't get the earthquakes like they do in Japan or Turkey."

Villagers in Bromyard, which was the epicentre of the earthquake, said they did not know what the tremor was at first.

Cary Barnett, 53, said: "It was just a vibration to be honest. Everyone in the area felt the same thing. Everything rattled. I thought it was a lorry going past.

"Some people didn't notice it at all but somebody said they thought a lorry had come through their driveway."

Philip Westmacott, 46, said: "We felt a bit of a thud. It was a bit strange but nothing is broken. It just shook the chair I was sitting in."

Emalie Dutson, 18, said: "I didn't feel anything. A couple of people have said they heard an earthquake but nobody felt anything here. They just heard there had been one."

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