Where were you when the earth shook 5.5?

Workers on Queen St. in Ottawa vacate their office buildings Wednesday following the earthquake, which lasted about 15 seconds and was strong enough to knock books off shelves. Bill Curry/The Globe and Mail

Magnitude 5.5 quake moved the ground in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and several U.S. states

Toronto — Globe and Mail Update Published on Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2010 1:46PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2010 2:23PM EDT

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit central Canada this afternoon, rattling buildings from Windsor to Montreal and several U.S. states.

The epicentre of the quake was in Quebec, 61 kilometres north of Ottawa, according to U.S. Geological Survey, and struck at 1:41 p.m.EDT.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice was doing an interview with CTV at its Ottawa bureau on the 14th floor of the World Exchange Plaza in downtown Ottawa when the tremour struck.

"I was on the air and suddenly my chair was moving," he said afterwards. "Fortunately I was at the end."

The sidewalks quickly filled with workers who decided to evacuate their buildings. Within minutes of the tremour, cellphone service in Ottawa was down, possibly because callers had overloaded the system, though the exact cause was not known.

The Globe's Ottawa bureau was evacuated at 1:43 p.m. The Toronto newsroom also shook.

Twitter users as far away as Springfield, Mass. and Traverse City, Mich. reported feeling tremors. A Globe reporter in Montreal said that city also shook.

A Toronto Police spokesperson said that there have been no reports of injuries in Toronto.