It was 6:39 p.m. when the building began to shake. A slight ripple that cast a silence in our little editorial office. In the heat and humidity of a Friday evening, the earth shook in Rennes. The Breton capital is not the only one to have been affected. According to the testimonies of Internet users, the earthquake was also felt in Nantes, Angers and Bordeaux. But it was around Niort that the earthquake was most powerful. According to the National Seismic Monitoring Network (Renass), the epicenter is located a few kilometers from the capital, Deux-Sèvres.
The magnitude is still to be confirmed but the first trends of the Renass show a shock at 5.9. “This event was detected automatically and needs to be confirmed by one of our analysts”, warns the network. The city of Niort called on its inhabitants not to panic after this shock.
On social networks, the inhabitants of the west of France quickly expressed their surprise. “My daughter screamed because the windows were shaking. Me, I was on the sofa, it was really moving a lot, ”says a Rennes woman. “I was listening to music with headphones when I saw my TV moving. I felt my butt vibrate too. I threw away my headphones and prayed for everything to be back to normal. It lasted a few seconds, ”says a resident of the outskirts of Rennes. “The house cracked everywhere,” adds Marine.