The biggest earthquake in Britain for 24 years shook the country today, causing widespread panic and damage in the early hours of the morning.

The tremor, which happened just before 1am, was felt from Yorkshire to the south coast and from London to South Wales, rocking buildings and waking thousands of people.

See also – Were you woken by the quake?

Its epicentre was near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, but many Shropshire residents, particularly in Telford and the north of the county, felt the shudder. And a chimney collapsed in Market Drayton, resulting in the closure of the town’s High Street.

Emergency services across England said they had been inundated with calls – many from elderly people suffering panic attacks – but there were few reports of injuries.

A Lincolnshire Police spokeswoman said: “It made us very, very busy for about an hour.”

Student David Bates, 19, was watching television in the attic of his terraced home in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, when a chimney crashed through the ceiling. He was taken to hospital with pelvic injuries after being hit by a chunk of masonry.

His father Paul said: “I was in bed. I’d just heard the big rumble everyone else heard, but then I heard David shouting ‘Dad’ and ran upstairs. This massive piece of stone had landed on his hip and he was just shouting he thought it was broken.”

Dozens of people, mostly from Telford, contacted the Shropshire Star today with their own quake experiences.

They included John Jones, of Ketley, who at first feared it was a “poltergeist” and Angela Proudlock, of Malinslee, who said her pedigree bichon frise Marshall was “shaking like a little nodding dog”.

The quake’s magnitude was recorded as 5.2 ML. It is the largest since 1984 when a quake with a magnitude of 5.4 ML shook the Lleyn Peninsula of north Wales and was widely felt across England and Wales.

Seismologist Dr Brian Baptie, of the British Geological Survey, said: “This is a significant quake for the UK and will have been widely felt across England and Wales.”

Many buildings suffered damage today, with the main problem being collapsed chimneys and roofs.

But homeowners should be covered for the cost, insurers said today. Association of British Insurers spokesman Malcolm Tarling said: “It is a pretty scary event, but will not be a major incident for insurers. Damage appears to be limited at this stage.”

He said structural damage would be covered by buildings insurance, while contents insurance would cover the cost to broken items in the home.