Many in the Montreal area were roused from sleep just after midnight Wednesday, when a 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck.

According to Natural Resources Canada, the  earthquake’s epicentre was in the Longueuil area.

Allison Bent, a seismologist with Earthquake Canada, said the quake occurred at 12:20 a.m.

No immediate reports of serious damage could be verified.

The earthquake sent some rushing into the street, with many Quebecers taking to Twitter to share what they experienced.

"In St-Eustache, it started as a low rumbling, and then the whole house began to shake violently," Morgan White told CTV Montreal via Twitter.

Others emailed their description of the event.

“We felt a strong tremor here in Terrebonne at aprox 12:20a.m.,” said CTV viewer Monette Bouvier in an email. “It was very impressive. (It) started like a boom then shook our large house with vibrations until they got lighter then stopped. It lasted a good 30 or more seconds!”

This Natural Resources Canada map provides information on where the earthquake struck, and where it was most intense.

The quake was felt over a large area of southern Quebec and extended into parts of southern Ontario, confirmed Bent.

She said Wednesday morning's tremor was smaller than the June 2010 earthquake that struck between Ottawa and Montreal -- a 5.0 magnitude quake. A town near the quakes epicentere, Gracefield, Que. declared a state of emergency after several buildings were damaged, including civic administration offices, a church and a grocery store.

There are in fact  about 150 quakes every year in Quebec, though many are too small to be felt, said Fiona Darbyshire, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Universite du Quebec a Montreal.

"We usually have about one to two per year that are between magnitude 4 and 5 that are widely felt and then the bigger ones, magnitude 5 and above, usually around two to three per decade," she said.

Wednesday morning's earthquake is considered mild.

Did you witness any in damage in Wednesday morning's earthquake? Send us a photo or video via MyNews or e-mail us at montrealweb@ctv.ca