Magnitude 4.7 quake strikes near Italy’s Naples, causing outages and damage
A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the Campi Flegrei volcanic area near Naples in southern Italy on Friday, causing power outages, disrupting rail and metro services, and damaging several buildings, according to authorities.
The tremor occurred at 7:46 p.m. local time (1746 GMT), with its epicentre located in the Campi Flegrei area west of Naples at a depth of about 3 kilometres, the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said.
Italy’s fire service reported minor structural damage to buildings in and around Naples but said it had not received any emergency requests for rescue operations.
As a safety precaution, local authorities temporarily suspended train and metro services following the quake.
Italian media described the tremor as one of the strongest ever recorded in the Campi Flegrei area, with residents in several neighbourhoods rushing into the streets as the ground shook.
Campi Flegrei, a densely populated volcanic caldera covering much of western Naples, has experienced a rise in seismic activity in recent years, prompting authorities to increase monitoring of the area.
While minor earthquakes are common in the region, stronger tremors have revived concerns about a recurrence of the seismic crisis of the early 1980s, when thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes.
Italy is prone to earthquakes, with one of the most devastating recent disasters occurring in 2016, when a series of powerful quakes struck central regions including Lazio, Umbria and Marche, claiming about 300 lives.
The country’s deadliest earthquake in recent decades occurred in November 1980, when a magnitude 6.9 quake hit the Irpinia region in southern Italy, killing around 2,700 people and destroying hundreds of towns.
Source: Reuters
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