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© Natural Resources CanadaThis Natural Resources Canada map shows the epicentre of the early-morning earthquake.
Serious damage highly unlikely, seismologist says.

A small earthquake was felt in and around the Montreal region early Wednesday morning.

Natural Resources Canada seismologist Allison Bent said it was a magnitude 4.5 quake and was centred southeast of Montreal.

"The epicentre is 21 kilometres west-northwest of Saint Hyacinthe and that's about 37 kilometres from Montreal," Bent said in an interview from Ottawa.

There were no reports of damage although the quake did create jitters that had some people scurrying briefly from their houses.

The temblor lasted just a few seconds, causing buildings to rumble.

Bent said any serious damage was highly unlikely.

She added there have been reports that a few people in the Ottawa area felt the quake.

CBC's Leah Hendry reported from Montreal that she initially thought that a truck might have gone by the three-storey walk-up where she lives in a condo with her husband.

"We both looked at each other and think: 'We lived four years in Vancouver and we experience an earthquake in Montreal,' " she said.

Hendry said she could see some lights flickering, but saw no obvious damage.

'Very bad memories'

Dominique Anglade, a senior executive of Quebec's Coalition party, was one of the many people who took to Twitter to describe the quake.

A member of Montreal's large Haitian community, Anglade lost her parents in Haiti's devastating earthquake two years ago. The pair were the first Canadians confirmed dead in the disaster.

She wrote that the quake evoked "very bad memories" for her.

In Montreal's west end, a couple of people briefly rushed outside as their windows shook in a four-storey apartment building near the former site of the old Forum arena.

Minor Montreal-area quakes common

CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe, who is also a seismologist, said the Montreal region has approximately one earthquake every five days, but most are too weak to be felt.

Because the Montreal area is far from the edge of any tectonic plates, earthquakes tend to be less concentrated but can be felt over hundreds of kilometres.

Small aftershocks may be possible, warned Wagstaffe.

According to the United States Geological Survey the two most damaging earthquakes in the area happened in 1935 and 1732.

A quake with magnitude between 2 and 3 on the Richter scale is the lowest normally perceptible to humans. A magnitude 5 quake is considered moderate.

With files from The Canadian Press and the Associated Press