The area in southern Italy witnessed a “seismic swarm” overnight, in which around 150 earthquakes were recorded.
Authorities evacuated 39 families near the Italian city of Naples and schools were closed after a wave of earthquakes sparked panic, but there were no injuries.
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded shortly after 8pm (6pm GMT) on Monday night at a depth of 2.5km (1.6 miles), according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology ( INGV).
It was part of what the institute called a “seismic swarm” during the night, in which around 150 earthquakes were recorded.
“This is the most powerful seismic swarm in the last 40 years,” said Mauro Di Vito of the institute.
Some residents of Pozzuoli, a town near Naples, ran from their homes into the street after Monday night’s tremors, which the local mayor said on Tuesday were still going on at lunchtime.
Around 80 people slept overnight in a hastily erected shelter in a sports hall, while several reception points – including tents, toilets and temporary cots – were set up for those afraid to return home.
Seismic activity is nothing new in Pozzuoli, located in the Campi Flegrei (Phlegrean Fields), Europe’s largest active caldera – the cavity left after an eruption.
But many of the 500,000 residents living in the danger zone suffered a 4.2 magnitude earthquake last September.
“We were so scared, even though people are used to it,” an employee at a pizzeria in the center of Pozzuoli told AFP.
Some residents protested what they saw as a lack of preventative action by authorities, including checking how buildings could withstand an even greater shock.
“My store has never been searched,” said a second hairdresser in Pozzuoli, 55-year-old Nella Aprea.
“Action plans are in place, but there are still not enough resources.”
Emergency services reported cracks and pieces falling from buildings following the quakes, and inspections were ordered at several locations.
Thirty-nine families were evacuated from 13 buildings, the civil protection department said.
Schools in Pozzuoli were also closed for checks, along with 18 factories, a municipal cemetery and a fish market, according to Pozzuoli Mayor Gigi Manzoni.
About 140 inmates from the city’s women’s prison were transferred to other institutions while damage to the prison was examined.
“How long will buildings be able to resist while [there are] all these shocks? That’s what we ask ourselves,” a resident told RAI News television.
Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi said on Tuesday that the situation was “under control”, adding that there was “no risk of an eruption”.
But he warned that the situation could continue “for months”.
“It is very important to live with this phenomenon, trying to maintain normality,” he said.
The eruption of Campi Flegrei, 40 thousand years ago, was the most powerful in the Mediterranean.
The resurgence of seismic activity in the early 1980s led to a mass evacuation that reduced Pozzuoli to a ghost town.
Experts, however, say a full eruption in the near future remains unlikely.
INGV recalled on Tuesday that in the 1980s there were more than 1,300 seismic events per month and hydrothermal activity caused the ground to rise 9 cm per month.
On the other hand, around 450 seismic events were recorded in the last month and the uplift speed remained stable at 2 cm (0.8 inches) per month.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
