Leicester City fans cause 'biggest Vardyquakes' at King Power

Jamie Vardy scored two goals in the game against Everton

Fans at Leicester City's final home game of the season caused "the biggest" earth tremors recorded at the ground.

A University of Leicester team which installed a seismometer near the King Power Stadium reported two minor quakes with a magnitude of 0.4 on Saturday night.

Known as Vardyquakes, the tremors have been attributed to sudden energy releases made by Foxes fans.

Goals by both Jamie Vardy and Andy King notched up quakes of 0.4 magnitude.

Andy King's goal sparked a quake with a magnitude of 0.4

A surge of fans' energy when Andy King scored against Everton resulted in a quake with a magnitude of 0.4

"The fans must have been truly energised for their team to end the league on a high and we can see this with the seismic waves they produced," said research team member Richard Hoyle.

"The signals we measured at Saturday's game were the biggest we have seen coming from the King Power Stadium since we started monitoring the matches."

He added: "If we collate all of the data from previous matches, out of all the LCFC goal scorers, Vardy is responsible for generating the most seismic activity since the project started - so perhaps there really is such a phenomenon as the Vardyquake!"

Until the game against Everton, the biggest reading was when Leonardo Ulloa scored a last-minute winner against Norwich, in February. It registered a magnitude of 0.3.

A seismometer was installed at a nearby primary school

A seismometer was installed by geology students, and the British Geological Survey (BGS), at Hazel Community Primary School, 500m (0.3 miles) from the stadium, as part of a project to detect earthquakes around the world.

When it was installed, Paul Denton, a seismologist from the BGS, said researchers wondered if football fans would affect the detectors.

"The seismometers were actually closer to the Leicester Tigers [rugby] ground and so we were expecting stronger signals from there but we can't find anything.

"It says something about the nature of football, it's so tense and then we get four or five seconds of unexpected magic."

Fans turned out in their thousands to join in with the celebrations

Thousands of fans flocked to Leicester on Saturday to celebrate the Foxes being handed the Premier League trophy, after their fairytale season.

On Sunday, Leicester's main hospital urged people not to go to A&E unless they had a genuine emergency as they were trying to cope with an influx of people with "drink-related injuries".

Opera star Andrea Bocelli kicked the party off at the King Power Stadium with pre-match renditions of Nessun Dorma and Time to Say Goodbye, honouring a recent promise to his countryman Ranieri.

The party baton was then handed over to the players, who brushed Everton aside with a goal from Andy King and two from Jamie Vardy before the visitors struck a late consolation.

An open top bus parade will take place on Monday 16 May, ending up in Leicester's Victoria Park.