LANCASHIRE was hit by an earthquake which affected most of England during the early hours of this morning.

Emergency services were inundated with calls from people who described being woken by their homes shaking violently.

The tremor, which lasted between 10 and 20 seconds, measured 4.7 on the Richter scale according to initial reports from the United States Geological Survey.

It happened just before 1am today and the epicentre was reported to be 15 miles north east of Lincolnshire.

More than 200 calls were received by Lancashire Police in the quake's aftermath, but there were no reports of any injuries. 

In other parts of the country there were reports of structural damage and power failures.

A spokeswoman for the North West Ambulance Service said: "We felt the tremors here in our control room in Anfield.

"We have had a few of our vehicles reporting that they felt the tremors as far as Macclesfield and up towards Southport."

Did you feel the the earthquake? Tell us about it.