An earthquake which shook houses across Buckinghamshire last night has been likened to the violent tremors from the Buncefield oil depot blast 10 years ago.

A magnitude 2.3 earthquake hit Thame at 11.12pm yesterday, with residents in Chinnor, Princes Risborough, Stokenchurch and the surrounding villages reporting that they could feel the ground shaking.

In December 2005, when the Hemel Hempstead-based Buncefield oil depot exploded, some homes in south Bucks were left damaged.

READ MORE HERE: Earthquake 'shook houses' in Bucks last night.

Loosley Row resident Graham Muspratt said roof tiles fell off his home following the explosion and he immediately thought there had been a similar disaster when his house shook last night.

He said: “It was that sort of noise and feeling as if something big had exploded far away.

“It wasn’t quite as bad as Buncefield – the whole house shook then and a few tiles fell off my roof – but, I definitely felt it.

“I was just getting ready for bed when I felt the shaking.

"It made the house shake for a fraction of a second, like a heavy goods vehicle had driven by the front of the house.

“It sounded like a really loud thud, as if the neighbours had dropped something.”

On social media, residents speculated about what had caused the noise and shaking.

Earlier this morning, the British Geological Survey confirmed there had been a magnitude 2.3 earthquake.

The depth of the earthquake was shallow at just 5km, according to the BGS.

Scientist Nigel Henbest, from Loosley Row, also heard the noise of the earthquake – years after developing equipment on Mount Etna which could tell when such a natural disaster would hit.

He said: “After working on Mount Etna for a year and travelling to places like California and New Zealand, it seemed strange that the first time I experienced an earthquake was in Loosley Row.”

He added: “I thought it was a bit like Buncefield. I wondered if it was a distant explosion like that, or something collapsing. It made me think of what had happened at Didcot too.

“It did cross my mind that it could have been an earthquake, but it seemed extremely unlikely.”