Washington was about 80 miles from the epicentre of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

A FORMER Guernsey resident who was in Washington when the 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit on Tuesday said that at the beginning it felt like Concorde was passing overhead.

Patrick Pannett works in the central downtown area of Washington DC and was in the middle of a conference call with people from across the region when the windows of his fifth-floor office started to shake.

‘At first, it reminded me of when Concorde would pass overhead back on Guernsey in the evenings, but this one went quite a bit longer, for maybe 30-45 seconds,’ Mr Pannett said yesterday.

‘I looked out of the window and people on the street seemed to be walking normally. It was only when everyone on the conference call started talking about it too that I realised it wasn’t just our building, but all over – an earthquake.’

• Read the full story in the Guernsey Press. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.