*UK assesses Earthquake damage*

Woman walks past earthquake damage

Checking the damage will take days

Hundreds of people in Kent are assessing the damage done to homes and
businesses by an earthquake.

Homes in Folkestone were evacuated and one woman suffered a neck injury
when the 4.3 magnitude tremor struck on Saturday morning.

Several families spent the night in emergency accommodation and police
said 38 homes had been assessed so far.

Salvation Army minister Captain Peter West said some were worried about
ever being able to return to their homes.

Surveys on another 80 buildings in Folkestone would be completed before
tomorrow, added police.

Street scene
Some families have been unable to return home

Shepway District Council said two large families and several other
families were being accommodated last night at the authority's emergency
centre.

More than a dozen people spent the night at Folkestone's Salvation Army
centre.

Capt West said that when the earthquake had first happened, the people
arriving at the Salvation Army centre in Folkestone had looked "quite
shaken, confused, anxious".

He said: "The ones we've got here now are the ones who can't be allowed
back in their homes, maybe their homes are too badly damaged and are
thinking maybe they'll never be able to go back to them."

Council spokesman Jeff Stack said it would take days just for the
initial analysis of homes to be carried out.

Following the earthquake homes in five streets in the town were
evacuated because of structural damage including cracked walls and
fallen chimneys.

The tremor struck at 0819 BST and experts said its epicentre was 7.5
miles off the Dover coast in the English Channel.

 Mother's lucky escape

Kent Fire and Rescue Service took more than 200 emergency calls, from
people concerned about a variety of issues ranging from structural
damage to gas smells.

The Kent incident is the largest recorded in Britain since an earthquake
in Dudley in 2002.

British Geological Survey (BGS) seismologist Roger Musson said the quake
was "by no means a complete surprise".

"There have been earthquakes in this location before."

He said the first was in 1382 and in 1580 a quake with a magnitude of
about six killed two people in London.

Police want owners of local businesses which were empty over the weekend
to check their premises for signs of damage.

The BGS is keen for anyone who felt the earthquake to fill in a
questionnaire on their website so they can collect information on the
impact of the earthquake to analyse in more detail its strength and
precise location.

Meanwhile, beach huts in Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire, were cleared after a
crack hundreds of metres long appeared in the coastal cliff.

The Marine and Coastguard Agency said the 15cm (6in) wide crack that
appeared about 240km (150 miles) away from Folkestone could have been
triggered by the quake but Hampshire Police said there was not thought
to be a link.