Internet wags were quick to mock the earthquake that shook Kent.
Within hours of the tremors – which measured 4.2 on the Ricter scale but didn’t cause any injuries or destruction – jokers took to social media sites.
Many posted “devastating scenes” of scattered garden furniture, overturned wheelie bins and spilt drinks.
Lots had captions such as, “Never Forget. We Will Rebuild”.
Gently mocking hashtags, included, “#lestweforget” and “#kentearthquake”.
Local residents disturbed by the quake – which struck four miles south of Ramsgate at 2.52am – reported books being shaken from shelves.
One described the experience as feeling like a vehicle had been driven into their property.
Another said they thought their hotel door was being kicked in.
A third said it sounded like a “heavy object rolling over the roof”.
More than 800 “felt reports” were made to the British Geological Survey (BGS), mainly from residents in Ramsgate.
But it also heard accounts from as far afield as Norwich, North Walsham and Cromer in East Anglia.
Kent Police were inundated with calls, but no injuries or structural damage were reported.
Hannah Bland, from Margate, said it was a “terrifying experience”.
She revealed: “I was so scared, I was praying it was going to stop. The noise was so loud, like a train going through your house.”
Melissa Budge, who was working at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, said: “Me and the staff nurse both felt it whilst we were helping a patient back into bed.
"We both froze and looked at each other. I thought a bomb was going off. Scary.”
Claire Edwards, from Herne Bay, said she had been breastfeeding her four-month-old daughter at the time.
“I was actually scared,” she said.
“We could feel the building shake from the ground upwards. I was very aware of the top floor above us shaking and the building moving.”
Adrian Tottenham, from Sandwich, said his first thought was that there was an elephant or large animal lumbering across the roof.
“It finished after 15-20 seconds, and it was about five minutes later that the penny dropped that it could have been an earthquake,” he said.
Muni Prasad, from Ramsgate, said: “We were woken up suddenly. For a few seconds the property was moving. In my daughter’s room, books had fallen down.”
Bob Fludgate said: “I was woken up in the early hours as if a lorry had hit the house. Nothing had happened so I went back to sleep.”
Kent has been at the centre of tremors before.
In April 2007, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit Folkestone, causing cracked walls and falling chimneys.
BGS seismologist David Galloway said: “Earthquakes happen all over the UK – we get some 200 a year on average.
“One on the scale of this morning’s only happens every two or three years.”
An earthquake measuring 3.7 magnitude hit Rutland in January.
