A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck the volcanic area around Naples as part of a ‘major’ quake swarm on Tuesday, sparking fear but no immediate reports of damage.
The tremor hit the Campi Flegrei area in southern Italy at 12:07 pm, at a depth of three kilometres, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
It was preceded by two quakes of 2.1 magnitude, and followed by one of 3.5 magnitude 15 minutes later.
The tremors were felt in Naples and neighbouring Pozzuoli, where panicked residents ran to the streets.
‘A major seismic swarm is underway,’ wrote Gigi Manzoni, the mayor of the city of Pozzuoli on social media.
He said it had ‘inevitably frightened the population’ but urged everyone ‘to remain calm, to remain in open spaces – this is a time of great anxiety’.
He said he had deployed local police to the streets.
The Naples metro and the city’s cable car were suspended as a precaution, local media said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Firefighters said they were carrying out checks on the stability of buildings.
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck the volcanic area around Naples
The Naples metro and the city’s cable car were suspended as a precaution
At the moment, there are no reports of damage.
Seismic activity is nothing new in the area, which is Europe’s largest active caldera – the hollow left after a volcanic eruption.
It stretches from the outskirts of Naples into the sea, measuring some 7.4 by 9.3 miles.
But many of the 500,000 inhabitants living in the danger zone have been spooked by larger than usual quakes in the past year.
‘We continue to monitor (the situation) minute by minute, but we must avoid alarmism – the data does not indicate worrying developments,’ INGV director Mauro Di Vito told the AGI news agency.
The volcanic eruption of Campi Flegrei 40,000 years ago was the most powerful in the Mediterranean.
A resurgence of seismic activity in the early 1980s led to a mass evacuation which temporarily reduced Pozzuoli to a ghost town.
Specialists, however, say a full-blown eruption in the near future remains unlikely.
It comes after a 4.4 magnitude quake on March 13 caused several light injuries and damage to some buildings, 10 months after another similar tremor in May 2024 – which was the biggest for 40 years.
