© The Local, Germany's News in English
An unusually
strong earthquake rocked western Germany on Thursday evening, causing alarm but no damages. The quake was especially noticeable around the epicentre near the Lower Rhine region but was also felt through the Ruhr Valley.
Rated 4.4 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake upset many people, causing hundreds of simultaneously placed emergency calls to police in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Though strong for a region unused to quakes, the minor tremor caused no injuries or property damage.
Professor Klaus Hinzen from the University of Cologne pinpointed the epicentre as the town of Goch, bordering the Netherlands in the Lower Rhine region.
The earthquake occurred after 9 pm and was felt within a radius of 200 kilometres.
"From Bielefeld to Brussels, in the Bonn area, and even as far as Amsterdam," Hinzen said.
Thursday's quake was the strongest reported this autumn in Germany. In the past few days, many earthquakes had been recorded in the eastern German region of Vogtland, however, these were much weaker.