Quakes rock several Italian regions

Rome, Aug 11 (IANS/AKI) A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy early on Friday, the national geology and geophysics institute reported, adding it was followed several hours later by magnitude 2.3 and 2.5 tremors in the central Abruzzo region, and a magnitude 2.3 tremor in the northern Emilia-Romagna region.

The quake off Calabria's northeast coast was registered at a depth of 227 kilometres at 4.38 am while the Abruzzo quakes were recorded in the province of L'Aquila - at 7.45 am, 2 kilometres northeast of Barete and at 8.00 am, 2 kilometers northwest of Camposto.

At 9.25 am, a fourth quake rocked Emilia-Romagna's province of Modena with an epicentre 2 kilometres southwest of the town of Camposanto, the national geology and geophysics institute said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to buildings or infrastructure caused by the quakes.

Several major earthquakes have hit Italy's seismic centre-north and south in recent years. Five strong quakes have struck central Italy's mountainous spine since August 2016, killing 300 people.

The five quakes have left several thousand homeless and caused over 23 billion euros of damage to dwellings and other buildings including medieval churches as well as to agriculture.

They have been followed by thousands of after-shocks.

Two powerful temblors hit Emilia-Romagna in May 2012, killing 25 people and wreaking billions of euros of damage to the region.

In 2009, a magnitude 5.9 tremor hit L'Aquila and surrounding villages, killing 309 people, leaving around 70,000 homeless and damaging thousands of buildings including medieval churches and art treasures.

--IANS/AKI

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