QUAKE SCARE IN ENGLAND

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3303, 30 May 1931, Page 3

QUAKE SCARE IN ENGLAND

NIGHT RUSH INTO THE STREETS. Amazing scenes occurred at Stokeon Trent following two distinct earth tremors which caused widespread alarm in the Cobridge district of Stoke. People rushed from their houses in their nightclothes; furniture was overturned; door and windows rattled and trembled. Only one casualty has been reported—a woman who fainted on hearing what she thought to be an explosion at a local works, and struck her head on a fender. Two horses stabled together became terrified,_and one lashed out and injured the other. A cow was hurt in its forelegs when it attempted to jump a wall. The first shock occurred shortly after 3 a.m. It is described by various residents as being exactly like a severe explosion close at hand. Many of them did not wait to put on a few garments. One woman became hysterical, and screamed: "An earthquake! " The second shock came about three hours later. It was severe, but not so prolonged as the first one. Mr H. Colclough, of Waterloo Road, Cobridge, said that he was in bed when he heard the first shock. "I suppose the fact that the New Zealand earthquake was still fresh in people's memories caused much of the panic. Certainly many) (people were very alarmed, and it was a long time before fears died down."