A mild earthquake caused by coal mining shook the western German state of Saarland, causing damage to buildings but no injuries. A police spokesman in the Saarlouis region on the French border said the earthquake measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, the strongest on record in the area, and had knocked over chimneys and caused electricity outages yesterday. After the quake, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered near the epicentre in Saarwellingen, the police said, to demand an end to mining work which has sparked dozens of small tremors this year alone.