Home insurers only just recovering from the shock of having to fork out around £3 billion because of last year's floods have been shaken again by the largest earthquake to hit Britain for 25 years.

Although only lasting about 15 seconds the cost to insurance companies could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Large swathes of the country were affected by the tremor, which measured 5.2 on the Richter scale.

Emergency services were at full stretch and several people fled their homes, arriving at policy stations in their nightclothes demanding accommodation for the night.

John Kettley, the BBC weatherman, told Radio Five Live today: "I was terrified, everything was shaking.

"But I can promise you it has nothing to do with global warming."

Although there have been several reports of minor injuries because of the quake, the only serious casualty was 19-year-old student David Bates, who suffered a broken pelvis after part of a chimney stack crashed into his bedroom.

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