Just pulled this off the web
BRITAIN HIT BY NEW EARTHQUAKE
THE North West was hit by four earth tremors today, shaking buildings across the region.
Manchester took the brunt of the first quake - a two-second rumble which was felt over a wide area of the city which struck just before 9am.
A smaller tremor hit about 10 minutes later and a third just after before 12.45pm.
The city's tallest structure, the CIS building, was put on red alert and the Royal Exchange Theatre and surrounding shops in the city centre have been evacuated.
The latest tremors happened 30 seconds apart and were felt as far away as Rochdale.
Workers in the city centre said the afternoon quake was stronger than the tremors this morning.
Emergency services reported dozens of calls, but said it is too early to comment if any damage had been caused.
The British Geological Survey says the first readings showed that the 9am earthquake had measured between 2.5 and three on the Richter scale.
Assistant seismologist Julian Bukits, said: "That is a fairly large earthquake for the UK, although we would not expect damage to have been caused."
He said the tremor was not comparable with that which shook the West Midlands last month, and which measured 4.8 on the scale.
Mr Bukits, at the Survey's headquarters in Edinburgh, said it appeared the earthquake had been confined to Greater Manchester, with reports coming in from Manchester and neighbouring Oldham, Salford and Stockport.
"Because it is such a densely populated area more people will have felt the effects and more people will have reported it," he said.
Readings are still being analysed. Mr Bukits said that if the tremor had measured 2.5 around 10 such earthquakes would be expected in the UK each year.
A special AOL earthquake message board began receiving postings just seconds after the first tremor struck, from across the North West region.
One member said: The bedroom shook and it felt that someone was on my roof."
Another added: "I live in a city centre flat above a basement carpark and thought a car had crashed the whole floor seemed to jerk suddenly."