Leighton Buzzard has been hit by an earthquake for the third time in two weeks.
The magnitude three tremor hit the Bedfordshire town on Tuesday morning, the British Geological Survey (BGS) confirmed.
It followed the initial 3.5 magnitude event on September 8 and a first aftershock on September 13, which registered as 2.1.
Glenn Ford, a seismologist with the BGS, told the PA news agency: “What we’re seeing here is a small aftershock from that earthquake (on September 8).”
Ford said it was “typical behaviour” which had been seen in different areas of the UK “on many occasions”.
He added: “There’s obviously been some stress been building up in that particular area and we’ve had the initial earthquake. It’s maybe just still rebalancing the stress regime in that partcular part of the world and we’re getting these little aftershocks occurring as well.
“It probably will settle down soon but could we get another one? We certainly could, but when it could happen, we don’t know.”
According to the BGS, people in Leighton Buzzard said the tremor “only lasted a couple of seconds” and felt like “a single jolt, a bit like being in a car that has done an emergency stop”.