A 3.2 magnitude earthquake has rocked the West Midlands, with residents reporting 'shaking' and explosion-like sounds in the Birmingham area.
Residents described being left "terrified" after the quake hit 7km north west of Birmingham, with a depth of 10km, at 10.59pm on Monday.
Locals reported their houses shaking during the seismic tremor which sounded like "a bomb going off" and a "car crashing" into their properties in Birmingham and the Black Country.
The epicentre is thought to be Andrew Road, near West Bromwich, close to the M5 and M6 motorways.
Homeowners living in Walsall described how they were left fearing the worst as many were jolted from their beds on Monday night.
Carpenter Dale Russell, 37, from Bloxwich, Walsall, said: "It was the most peculiar sensation, I thought a car had crashed into my house at first.
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"But then there was this deep rumbling and you could feel your whole body vibrate. I didn't know what was going on and was pretty terrified for a few seconds.
"You don't get many earthquakes around here, so of course you have no idea what's happening. I thought the worst because of these storms recently.
"When your walls and bed start shaking just as you're dropping off to sleep all sorts of things start going through your head."
Laura Parry, 36, of Walsall town centre, said: "It thought a bomb had gone off or something, it sounded like an explosion and I shot bolt upright in bed.
"Then I thought someone was trying to get in to the house so I woke up my husband, but he was too scared to move as well.
"We just couldn't figure out what is was. We eventually went outside and a lot of our neighbours were in the street just as confused as we were.
"A couple of burglar alarms were going off. It was really bizarre. The whole house shook."
Others took to social media to share their experiences of the earthquake, which was reportedly felt up to 20km (12m) away.
Paul Field said: "There was a shaking, then a rumble and then a bang - scared the life out of me. I thought WW3 was finally here."
Julie Penney said: "Bad in Walsall thought our boiler was about to explode. Sound not of this world, very strange and house shook, scary."
Joan Sutton wrote: "Three violent storms in two weeks and now an earthquake, scary."
David Howble said: "I was was woken up by it. It sounded like a train was come through Walsall."
Kiran commented: "Pandemics, Putin and earthquakes. How can I live, love, laugh in this world?"
People in other areas including Wolverhampton, Dudley and Wednesbury also reported feeling the tremor on social media.
In Wednesfield, a local reported: "I was in bed and just heard a thud. The house shook, it felt like a car crashed in to the house."
Another who took to social media wrote: "Earthquake in the West Midlands. Felt in Walsall, Birmingham, Dudley and Wolverhampton. It has been a crazy week with this as well as three storms - very strong winds on Friday and rain like I have never seen before yesterday.”
A further comment read: "The West Midlands was shaking, literally, just before 11pm. Yep. Earthquake. Birmingham actually just told Storm Franklin to hold its beer.”
The United States Geological Survey also said the quake was at a shallow depth of 10km with a tremor size of 3.2.
VolcanoDiscovery stated: "Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicentre.
"Weak shaking might have been felt in Streetly (pop. 13,300) located 5 km from the epicentre, and West Bromwich (pop. 135,600) 5 km away."
It is unusual for the UK to suffer earthquakes as it does not sit on a fault line between tectonic plates and when they do hit they are not so severe.
The strongest recorded British earthquake took place near the Dogger Bank, in 1931, which had a powerful magnitude of 6.1.
It struck 60 miles offshore but still caused damage to buildings on the east coast of England.
