PARTS of Kent were hit by an earth tremor today.

Sharon Hayles, who lives in the village of Stanford near the Eurotunnel at Folkestone, said her house slid from side to side for about 10 to 15 seconds.

There was no damage to her home, but she said the tremor, which hit at 8.18am, shook the house like a ''fun fair ride''.

Fire officials said they were being inundated with ''lots and lots'' of calls from residents in the Folkestone area.

A Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: ''We have had calls from people saying their chimneys have fallen down, large cracks in people's houses.'' It is understood householders felt the tremor further afield including in East Sussex, Essex and Suffolk.

Hendrick van Eck, 27, who lives in Canterbury, said the tremor lasted a matter of seconds.

He said: ''I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me.

''I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down.

''I thought 'that must have been earthquake'. It didn't last very long, just a matter of seconds.'' Mrs Hayles said she was sitting in her living room with her husband Martin when the tremor struck.

''We were looking at each other in amazement - you don't expect to feel a tremor that size here.

''It literally felt like the whole house was being slid across like a funfair ride,'' she said.

''We did expect to see some kind of damage, because we have a quite a large house and it was shifting under our feet. It was horrible.'' A spokesman for Eurotunnel said everything was ''running normally'' with the Channel Tunnel, which runs close to Folkestone.

''As far as we are concerned, it has had no affect on services,'' he said.

He added: ''We have felt the earth tremors but the system is running as per normal.'' A website for the US Geological Survey, which displays all recent earthquakes around the world, said the tremor measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.