A 4.4 magnitude earthquake has hit southwest England and Wales with thousands of people reporting they felt the tremors.
It struck at approximately 2.30pm and residents in Bristol and Cornwall said they “felt buildings shake”.
The quake’s epicentre is believed to have been around eight miles northeast of Swansea city centre, according to the US Geological Survey.
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Dyfed-Pows Police confirmed the earthquake was felt in their control room and said that a high volume of calls were being experienced in relation to the incident.
Soldiers of the Mexican army walk in front of the military helicopter and van in Santiago Jamiltepec, Mexico, on Feb. 17, 2018. (Photo: Patricia Castellanos, AFP/Getty Images)
A military helicopter carrying officials assessing damage from a powerful earthquake crashed Friday in southern Mexico, killing 13 people, all on the ground.
Five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at the hospital, the Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Another 15 people were injured in the incident.
Mexico’s Interior Department said that the helicopter was carrying Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Gov. Alejandro Murat, who were evaluating damage from the earthquake, when their helicopter crashed.
The helicopter crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land in Santiago Jamiltepec Friday night.
The crash happened in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which left buildings shaking and people in the southern area of the country fleeing to the streets for safety.
Some of those people, fearful an aftershock could destroy their homes, were spending the night in the open field where the chopper crashed, the Associated Press reported.
A local reporter who was on board the helicopter with officials described the moments when it crashed as "chaotic," adding it all happened as they attempted to land.
Reporter Jorge Morales said they had lost visibility and the only thing he saw was the dust rising before they landed.
He told local media the helicopter felt like it slipped and he could hear the metal scraping as the aircraft crashed on a van, adding it was "horrible."
Photos from the incident show the camouflage-patterned helicopter on its side, a white and red van crushed beneath it. Chairs, what appear to be pillows and sheets and other debris litter the ground.
More: Mexico struck by massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake
The epicenter of the earthquake found along the Pacific coast near Santiago Ixtayutla, a town in the state of Oaxaca in the southwestern area of the country.
The country frequents earthquakes but escaped widespread damage Friday.
About 50 buildings suffered significant damage and others lost power for several hours, but the aftermath was nothing close to the back-to-back earthquakes last year.
More than 90 people died after the first earthquake on Sept. 7, then days later on Sept. 19, another disaster struck in Central Mexico. Several hundred were left dead.
The second tragedy landed on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, which left an estimated 9,500 people dead.
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A 4.4-magnitude earthquake shook South Wales Saturday, rattling buildings and startling residents throughout the coastal towns where quakes are uncommon.
The epicenter was located a few miles north of the town of Swansea, Wales, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS), but tremors could be felt across south Wales and the southwest of England.
It was the strongest recorded earthquake in the area for more than 100 years, the BGS said. So far, no injuries have been reported.
This is the biggest event in the area since the 5.2 magnitude earthquake in 1906. pic.twitter.com/zq9JEIttQI — BGS (@BritGeoSurvey) February 17, 2018
Tyler Mears, who lives 30 miles north of the quake's epicenter in Rhondda, South Wales, said when her house began to shake she initially thought of many causes, but it didn't occur to her that it could be an earthquake.
A street in Brynmill, Swansea, UK. Panoramio
"We live right by a mountain, so at first I thought a car had come down the mountain and crashed into the side of the house," Mears said.
She quickly took to social media, where she said her friends throughout the country said they felt the quake, too.
"We all kind of looked at each other in disbelief," she said. "We have rain and thunderstorms, but never an earthquake."
Although small earthquakes in the United Kingdom are not uncommon, the British Geological Survey said historically quakes above a 5-point magnitude on the Richter scale occur about every decade.
The initial quake, initially thought to be 4.7 on the Richter scale but later reduced, hit at around 2.31pm around 20km from Swansea.
According to the UK Earthquake Bulletin, that was swiftly followed by three aftershocks in close proximity.
The first and largest one was felt at around 2.35pm.
There was a small tremor again around five minutes later.
