4.2 magnitude earthquake hits Calabria, none harmed

No damage has been reported.

The earthquake, which had a depth of 11km, hit the communes of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia and the region’s capital of Reggio Calabria, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

The shock was also felt on the northeastern Sicilian city of Messina.

The area was subsequently shaken by three smaller aftershocks with magnitudes of between 1.7 and 1.9.

The deputy mayor of Palmi, one of the towns closest to the earthquake’s epicentre, reassured the region’s inhabitants that Italy’s Civil Protection Agency had sent teams to check the area and that no people or buildings had been harmed, reports La Repubblica.

However, service on the Tyrrhenian train line between Reggio Calabria and Rosarno has been temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure while engineers check the tracks for any damage.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency categorically rejected rumours that a tsunami could hit the “Violet Coast” that runs along the Calabrian side of the Strait of Messina separating Sicily from the Italian mainland, and said that it reserved the right to lodge a complaint against the rumour’s (currently unknown) originators for causing unnecessary alarm, according to Ansa.

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