HOUSES and buildings were shaken in Margate and Westbrook when a large wartime mine was detonated off the coast.

People left their homes to find out what had caused the tremor and some telephoned Thanet police to find out what had caused it.

One resident from Westbrook said: “It rattled the whole house. The ceiling shook and the floor vibrated. It felt like an earth tremor or a small earthquake.”

The aftershock hit the coast shortly after 8pm last night when a Royal Navy bomb disposal team detonated the device that had been trawled up a mile off the Margate coast by a fisherman.

It is the second time in the last month that a mine has been netted off the Margate coast.