A magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits the Marche region in central Italy. In many places, people are running onto the streets, buildings are being evacuated, and train services are paralysed. It is not the first earthquake in the popular holiday region.
An earthquake hit the Marche region in east-central Italy on Wednesday morning. It reached a magnitude of 5.7, according to the European Earthquake Center EMSC. Initially, the strength was given as 6.1. According to the Italian Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the earthquake happened shortly after 7 a.m. The epicenter was in the sea off the Adriatic coast between Italy and Croatia at a depth of about 10 kilometers and 64 kilometers east of Rimini, the INGV said. A few minutes later there was a 4.0 magnitude aftershock. The tremors were felt in several northern and central Italian regions as far as the capital Rome and in South Tyrol.
In many places, people ran into the streets in panic. "So far we have not received any requests for rescue operations or reports of damage," the Italian fire brigade said on Twitter. As a precaution, however, schools were closed and trains canceled throughout the region, according to the regional authorities. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said the head of government was in constant contact with the civil protection agency and the head of government for the Marche region. Media reported that some buildings in the area, including a hospital, were evacuated as a precaution.
The Eurasian and African tectonic plates meet in Italy, making the earthquake risk particularly high. In the summer of 2016, almost 300 people died in an earthquake in the Marche, Umbria and Lazio regions.
