The telephone switchboard at the Manchester Evening News was jammed yesterday morning as the second earthquake in a month hit the city.

Earthquake experts later confirmed that there had been a series of four tremors due to "a seismic incident" up to 15 kilometres below the surface. The two-second rumble with a smaller aftershock ten minutes later was felt in Salford, Trafford, Tameside, Stockport and Bury as well as the city centre.

Readers told the newspaper they feared a bomb had gone off in the city centre - in the same area where the IRA struck in 1996.

Experts believe yesterday's quake measured three on the Richter scale - 1,000 times weaker than last month's incident, which had its epicentre in Dudley, in the West Midlands and measured five on the Richter scale.

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