Earthquake Rattles Downtown Rome

TECTONICS

Tourists queue behind the metal barrier to enter Rome's Colosseum 22 August 2005. An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale reverberated through the center of Rome Monday, but no injuries or damages were reported said an official with the Italian National Institute of Geophysics. AFP photo by Alberto Pizzoli.

Rome (AFP) Aug 22, 2005
An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale reverberated through the center of Rome Monday, but no injuries or damages were reported said an official with the Italian National Institute of Geophysics.

The quake, which occurred at 14:04 pm (13H04 GMT), lasted several seconds and was felt in the outskirts of the city and as far as Fiumicino international airport, 26 kilometers (16 miles) from the city center.

"The quake's epicenter was located along the coast and we are trying to calculate its depth," said Luca Malagnini, a spokesman with the National Institute of Geophysics.

"The situation is not particularly preoccupying for the moment," assured Malagnini.

Two weaker tremors were recorded in the Italian capital on August 15. One had a magnitude of 2.5 on the Richter scale, the other 2.2.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in Italy and the country has several high risk quake zones.

Deadly tremors of the past include an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale that hit the central, mountainous region of Molise in October 2002, killing 30 people including 27 students and their teacher who were crushed under their schoolhouse in the tiny, medieval village of San Giuliano di Puglia.

Twenty-two years earlier, on November 23, 1980, a violent quake rumbled through the region of Irpiona near Naples, killing 2,570, injuring 8,850 and leaving 30,000 people homeless.

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TECTONICS

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