A 5.7 magnitude earthquake shook Italy’s Adriatic coast just after 7am local time and was felt most strongly in the Marche region, where panicked residents ran out into the streets.

The quake, which struck off shore at a depth of eight kilometres and was felt in the capital Rome, was followed minutes later by a 4.0 tremor in the same region, the National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology said.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said she was in “constant contact” with the civil protection department and the Marche region’s chief.

“We have not so far received any rescue requests nor reports of damage,” the Italian fire and rescue service said on its official Twitter account.

Schools were nevertheless closed across the region while checks could be carried out, and trains were cancelled, regional authorities said.

“The streetlights of public lighting swayed like twigs, everything was shaking strongly, it was a terrible sensation and people poured into the streets”, a resident of the Marche town of Fano told news agency Ansa.

While no major damage to buildings was observed, a number of residents have reported the appearance of cracks in the walls of their homes.

Around ten people were admitted to Ancona hospital’s emergency room suffering from shock or heightened heart rate as a result of the incident.

“It was a big scare because the shock was strong and so we fear the consequences,” Matteo Ricci, the mayor of Pesaro in Marche, told Ansa.

A deadly earthquake in 2016 hit areas straddling the Marche, Umbria and Lazio regions, killing 297 people and injuring hundreds more.