A TREMOR which shook the country last Saturday was felt by a man in a town centre car park, which he initially thought was his wife playing a practical joke on him.

Barry Stockwell was waiting in his car for his wife Rosalie on the fourth floor of the Chantry Centre car park when ‘all of a sudden’ his car began rocking from left to right.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck at 2.31pm on 17 February, with an epicentre of 20km north/north-west of Swansea.

Tremors were felt across the south west of England and as far away as Liverpool, which Mr Stockwell realised after watching the news that his “peculiar” experience must have been the quake. 

Mr Stockwell said: “I was sitting in my car looking at my phone waiting for my wife to come back from Waitrose, and all of a sudden I started to rock from left to right quite violently. 

“I thought someone was rocking the car, I thought it was my wife as a joke because we play jokes like that. I expected her to be behind the car laughing.”

Mr Stockwell got out of his black Mercedes and found no-one in sight, and then assumed a heavy truck had gone past to have created the tremors.

When Mrs Stockwell, who is from the Philippines, returned to the car a few minutes later the 61-year-old explained the strange scenario to which she said it “must have been an earthquake” having experienced several back in her home country.

Independent scientific organisation EMSC reported tremors were felt by people across north Hampshire.

Mr Stockwell said: “I have never experienced anything like it, it felt exciting.
“It’s a weird sensation you can laugh about it now but at the time it was ‘what’s going on?’ It was very peculiar.”

The BGS has said earthquakes of this magnitude only occur in the UK every three to five years.