'Like a truck had crashed out front': How Melburnians reacted on social media to earthquake

Shocked Melburnians have taken to social media after this morning's 5.8 magnitude earthquake, describing it as "so scary", like a "truck had crashed out front" of their house, and with tremors that sent "everything rolling in front of our eyes".

Just after the quake hit at 9:15am, images and videos of a crumbled building on Chapel Street in South Yarra, with bricks strewn across the street, quickly began to circulate on social media.

Footage from ABC News showed presenters Michael Rowland and Tony Armstrong in a state of confusion as their studio shook.

READ MORE: Buildings damaged as earthquake strikes east of Melbourne

As the cameras wobble around, Rowland asks, "Is it an earthquake or a structural thing?"

Rising from his seat, Rowland says "let's go" and suggests everyone get out of the building.

"That was a big one," he adds.

Some Twitter users as far away as Adelaide, 725 kilometres north-west of the Victorian capital, claimed to have felt the earth move under their feet.

Closer to Melbourne, Richard N from Geelong posted on Twitter, saying, "the whole house shook significantly. Never felt anything like it before".

"Direct hit on my house, everything rolling in front of our eyes, my children loved it!" Catriona Rowntree wrote on Twitter.

"I thought a truck had crashed out the front. The house shook strongly for a good twenty seconds and my bed moved across the room down near Rye. All three kids slept through it," Eliza Who added.

LIVE UPDATES: Protesters arrested on Melbourne's Elizabeth Street

Mount Buller Ski Resort, which is located close to the epicentre of the quake, shared video showing the moment the ground rolled under a group of skiers' feet.

Thankfully nobody lost their footing. No avalanches have been reported.

Some Twitter users joked an angry French government must have taken action after Australia unilaterally pulled out of a $90 billion submarine deal last week, causing major diplomatic fallout.

READ MORE: History of Australia's most destructive earthquakes

In a photo shared to Twitter, a user documented the carnage inside a Chemist Warehouse.

While another Melburnian filmed the moment the quake started rattling his three-storey apartment!

In another video posted to Twitter, one man quietly doing yoga at home, holding plank, leaped to his feet, startled, when the quake hit.