Car alarms going off, windows shuddering, and dogs howling into the night.
These were some of the scant signs that northern KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland had experienced a moderate earthquake on Sunday night at 9pm.
Michelle Grobbelaar, seismology unit manager at the Council of Geosciences, confirmed that the earthquake had registered at four on the Richter scale.
“I have not heard of any damage so far, but the area in which the earthquake struck (near Mbabane) is mainly rural and not densely populated,” she said.
Newcastle resident Shantal Ramsai said the tremor sounded like something was being dragged on her roof. “The shower door was vibrating,” she said.
Rajnish Jaganath, a Grade 12 pupil in Lennoxston, Newcastle, said the shudder at about 8.30pm lasted about six seconds.