The quake, which stuck a minute before midnight, brought panicked residents flooding onto the streets of the economic capital Milan and forced the evacuation of three hospitals at its epicentre on Lake Garda, officials said.

"We have assessed the damage and we can say that there have been no serious victims," said Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection unit, after a meeting with senior emergency service officials in the northern city of Brescia early Thursday.

"Nine people have been slightly injured, and some have already been allowed to leave hospital. Some injured themselves while running clear of buildings and some were hit by falling debris," he said.

Bertolaso said 125 people were evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure, and many had preferred to spend the night out of doors fearing aftershocks.

The quake was felt across the entire north of Italy, from Veneto in the east to Liguria on the west coast, and including Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Val D'Aosta in between.

Bertolaso said the quake was measured at a relatively shallow depth of eight kilometres (five miles) underground, which explained why it could be felt across such a wide region.

"It's a seismic risk area, we knew that an earthquake could hit, but happily the buildings are of better quality here than in some other regions of the country," he noted.

Scientists said the epicentre was in the province of Salo, on Lake Garda.

Three local hospitals in the towns of Salao, Fasano and Gavardo were evacuated as a precautionary measure, local buildings were reportedly damaged, emergency services offical Mario Morcone said.

Tents were set up on a local football pitch to accommodate those simply too frightened to return to their homes.

Memories are still fresh in Italy of its most recent earthquake, which killed 27 schoolchildren and their teacher on October 31, 2002 in San Giuliano di Puglia, a small town in the southern Molise region.

Authorities blamed poor building practices as the school was the only building which collapsed in the quake. A second floor addition to the 1950s-era building had only just been completed the previous month.

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