Staff in the area were woken by the quake, which measured 5.3 in magnitude and which had its epicentre a few miles from the town.

Within minutes deputy editor Dave Atkin had the news up on the paper's website, thisisscunthorpe.co.uk, and readers submitted their comments online about their experiences.

The first three pages were stripped to make way for the quake news, with other pages changed to accommodate existing content.

"We already had a strong story about a TB outbreak, but the earthquake was obviously what everyone would be talking about this morning," said editor Jane Manning.

"Although we have a working deadline of 9pm, our actual deadline for the press is 5.45am, so we pushed it as far as we could.

"We called a small crew into the office - myself, Dave and chief sub editor John Curtis, with news editor Vicky Cottam, reporter Shemina Davis and picture editor Richard Addison all working remotely from home.

"It was fantastic to think that immediately after the quake happened we were able to put news out on our website and readers were looking to us for information, and were communicating with us in the middle of the night.

"That just could not have happened a few short years ago. It shows just how much things have changed.

"My thanks go to all my team who gave up their valuable sleep to make this happen!"

Early online coverage was also provided by the East Anglian Daily Times at around 2am, and the Colchester Gazette.

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