By Richard Weizel
MILFORD, Conn., Jan 12 (Reuters) - A small Connecticut town on Monday was rattled by its second earthquake in five days, prompting a wave of calls to police by worried residents.
Plainfield, Connecticut, a town of 16,000, was struck by a 3.3 magnitude earthquake at 6:36 a.m. EST with an aftershock just minutes later, according to the U.S Geological Survey.
Local police were inundated with calls from worried residents across the eastern part of the state who reported hearing a loud explosion and felt their houses shaking around the town near the Rhode Island border.
"Earthquakes of this magnitude are not common here and getting two within a week is starting to scare people," said Plainfield Police Captain Mario Arriaga. "There is definitely a lot of unease because of having two so close together and people are worried. The one today was noticeably worse than last week and we're getting calls from a larger area of town (43 square miles) and in towns beyond."
No injuries were reported in either quake.
Arriaga said more than 50 people called police last Thursday when a 2.2 magnitude earthquake shook the town, and about 60 calls had already come in by mid-morning after the Monday quake.
While Monday's quake was the fifth small earthquake to hit the area since October, according to data collected by the Weston Observatory at Boston College, tremors in Connecticut are rarely felt, Plainfield officials said. (Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Trott)
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