There was a 3.0 magnitude earthquake near Gatwick Airport last night

27 February 2019, 10:25 | Updated: 27 February 2019, 13:04

Many residents in surrounding areas of Surrey and Sussex may have woken up to rumbles as an earthquake struck.

The British Geological Survey has confirmed that a 3.0 earthquake struck near Gatwick Airport during the night.

Many residents of surrounding areas including Horley, Crawley and other areas of Surrey were woken up in the night to the ground rumbling beneath them.

Some took to Twitter to express their disbelief at being woken up by such a rare phenomenon in the UK.

Paralympian Scott Overall tweeted "Well that's a first, just been woken up by an earthquake!" whilst other social media users explained how they woke up to their "whole house shaking".

Tremors do happen across the British Isles on occasion but rarely big enough to be felt on the ground, let alone to wake people up from their beds.

Seismologist Stephen Hicks tweeted asking locals to send their reports of the earthquake to the British Geological Survey so that they could pinpoint the location.

The epicentre of the quake was pinpointed to Newdigate in Surrey, a small parish 25 miles south of London.