4.7-magnitude quake strikes near Italy’s Naples, causing outages and damage
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A building damaged by a 4.7-magnitude earthquake in Pozzuoli, near Naples, Italy, on July 31.
PHOTO: EPA
- A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck near Naples' Campi Flegrei area, causing power outages, transport disruptions, and minor building damage.
- The quake was one of the strongest recorded in the area, prompting fears due to Campi Flegrei's history of seismic activity.
- Authorities increased monitoring as the region has experienced frequent tremors, recalling past deadly quakes in Italy, including the 1980 Irpinia disaster.
AI generated
NAPLES, Italy – A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Campi Flegrei area near the southern Italian city of Naples on July 31, causing power outages, disrupting train and metro services and damaging some buildings, the authorities said.
The quake, recorded at 7.46pm (1.46am on Aug 1 in Singapore), had its epicentre in the Campi Flegrei area to the west of Naples at a depth of about 3km, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said.
The Italian fire service said there were reports of minor damage to buildings in and around Naples, but added that its crews had not received any immediate requests to help or rescue residents.
Local rail and metro services were suspended as a precaution, local officials said.
Italian media said it was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the area, with people in some neighbourhoods rushing onto the street as the tremors hit.
Campi Flegrei, a densely populated volcanic caldera encompassing a large part of western Naples, has experienced increasingly frequent seismic activity in recent years, prompting the government to step up monitoring.
Although small earthquakes are common in the area, stronger tremors have heightened fears of a repeat of the seismic crisis that struck Campi Flegrei in the early 1980s, causing widespread disruption and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes.
Earthquakes are relatively frequent in Italy.
A series of powerful quakes struck central Italy in 2016, devastating parts of Lazio, Umbria and the Marche regions, killing around 300 people.
The deadliest in recent decades was a 6.9-magnitude quake that struck the Irpinia area of southern Italy in November 1980. This quake killied about 2,700 people and devastated hundreds of towns. REUTERS
