This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

An earthquake in Somerset caused houses to rattle, beds to shake and objects to fall from shelves.

The quake, with a magnitude of 3.2, was reported in Bridgwater and a number of towns and villages across the county.

According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), it struck at 10.49pm and was 5km underground. The BGS said houses had rattled and one person reported that they felt their bed shake.

On Twitter, one resident said: “We just had an earthquake here in Somerset … thought a lorry had hit our house.”

Another said: Earthquake felt in Taunton, Somerset … thought something had hit the side of the house, made the windows shake, quite scary.”

The earthquake is the latest to be felt in the UK following a series of tremors in Surrey and Lancashire.

The energy company Cuadrilla was forced to suspend fracking for shale gas at a site in Lancashire in August after a series of tremors.

People in Taunton, Weston-super-Mare and Cheddar said they had felt the earthquake.

Elizabeth Parry, who is from Street, near Glastonbury, said: “We felt it in Street. There was a low rumble like a large lorry was going past and the whole house creaked.”

Siobhan Pestano said, from Langport, said: “It briefly felt like somebody had dropped a bit of Stonehenge on the house.”

Another Somerset resident said: “My ears were ringing. Smaller objects in the house were moving. Our wifi cut out and the dog was going crazy. Absolutely amazing.”

Two other small earthquakes have hit a similar area in between Taunton and Bridgwater. In 2004, a 3.7-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 6.5km, and in 2006 a 2.5-magnitude tremor hit at a depth of 10km.

The US Geological survey measured the latest earthquake to be slightly stronger at a magnitude of 3.4 and a depth of 10km. The difference is accounted for by slightly different computing measurements.

EMSC (@LastQuake) Map of felt reports received so far following the #earthquake M3.5 in England, United Kingdom 41 min ago pic.twitter.com/T0ExNylx8U