Teesside earthquake: North east of UK hit by 2.8 magnitude tremor as residents describe 'shaking'

The north east of England has been rocked by an early morning earthquake.

According to monitoring the United States Geological Survey, a 2.8 magnitude tremor rumbled the area surrounding the River Tees just before 6am.

The epicentre is said to be Stockton-on-Tees, but there were reports of shaking in Hartlepool and Redcar.

People took to Twitter to describe the shaking, with some saying it was "as if a train went past my bedroom window".

Others noted that they had been woken up by the tremors, which the USGS said happened at a depth of 10km (6.2 m).

The region was previously shaken by a quake in 2011, when a 3.6 magnitude tremor was recorded in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

Around 673,000 people live in the Teesside area, which includes Middlesbrough, Redcar, Stockon-on-Tees and Billingham.

Residents seemed to see the funny side of the shaking as they joked on social media about it.

Kirsty Smith tweeted: "As if there was actually an earthquake on Teesside this morning, I thought I'd had a weird dream."

and Dan said: "Just been woken up by the whole house shaking I think we might have just had a little earthquake. That’s something I didn’t think I’d ever say living in England."​

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, there are more than 100,000 earthquakes measuring 2.9 magnitude or lower every year.