A slight tremor was felt for a few seconds across Malta yesterday morning after an earthquake of magnitude three was registered at the University Seismic Monitoring and Re-search Group centre.

A spokeswoman for the group said the tremor was centred about 40 kilometres north of Malta and though it was felt for only a few seconds, it lasted for about a minute.

It was felt mostly in Valletta, but the spokeswoman said the centre also received reports from Marsascala, San Gwann and Kappara.

No reports were received from Gozo, which was rather strange, the spokeswoman said, since it is further north.

There was also 3.5 magnitude tremor in Sicily earlier in the morning at 6.35am which was also recorded on the University of Malta’s seismic recorder.

Last month, a similar tremor was felt in Malta after a strong earthquake hit the western Greek island of Lefkada.

The tremor was also recorded by the University’s Seismic Monitoring Unit.