Early morning shake-up call

LONDON (Reuters) - Strong earth tremors rocked many parts of the country in early hours of today, knocking out electricity and phone lines in some areas, but there were no reports of serious damage. "We have had hundreds of calls from people saying their houses were shaken and that buildings were wobbling," a spokesman for West Midlands police told Reuters on Monday.

"Some electricity and phone lines went down," he said.

The tremors occurred shortly before 1.00 a.m. on Monday [8 PM eastern]and were felt by people in many areas including central England, Wales and London.

"We have attended a few buildings, four or five in London after people in them phoned saying they were worried," a spokesman for the London fire service said.

"Car alarms have also been set off, but there has been no serious damage," he said.

No one was immediately available from the Environment Agency to comment on the magnitude of the tremors.

Britain is little troubled by earthquakes but it does experience a moderate rate of seismicity, the Environment Agency website said.

It said around 200-300 low to medium earthquakes were detected each each year. Buildings are at risk when earthquakes reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5 on the Richter scale.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2002