Updated 6.45pm

Eight tremors were recorded close to Malta in less than 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, with the most recent one coming at 6pm.

The tremors were all registered on the University of Malta’s Geosciences Department’s Seismic Monitoring & Research Group, which asked anyone who felt tremors to report them.

All the quakes had epicentres in the Central Mediterranean Sea.

The first of the tremors came on Tuesday at 8.42pm and was of magnitude 4.4 on the Richter Scale.

That was followed by a magnitude 5.1 tremor - the strongest of the six - which was recorded at 5.21am on Wednesday.

The third, the weakest, measured 3.9 and was recorded at 8.09am.

The fourth tremor, of magnitude 4, came at 9.46am while a fifth tremor was recorded at 3.13pm. It measured 4.8 on the Richter Scale. 

A Times of Malta reader in St Paul's Bay described feeling the ground wobble and hearing "a faint rumbling sound in the distance".

Less than 90 minutes later, at 4.54pm, a sixth tremor measuring 4.9 on the Richter Scale was recorded. That tremor was reported by readers in Rabat and Birkirkara, who said they felt windows shake. 

Just a few minutes later, at 5.51pm - the seventh tremor was recorded measuring 4 on the Richter Scale. This was followed by the eighth one at 6pm, measuring 4.6.

All the tremors were recorded about 120 kilometres south of Malta on the EMSC seismological service.