Minor earthquakes ripple through central and southern Italy

July 9, 2013 – ROMA, IT (AKI) – Minor earthquakes shook several areas of central and southern Italy overnight, but there were no reports of casualties or damage to buildings. A magnitude 3.5 earthquake rocked the provinces of Massa Carrara and Lucca in Tuscany at 1.31 am, Italy’s national geophysics and vulcanology institute reported. Its epicentre was between the towns of Minucciano, Giuncugnano and Casola in Luniggiana. Around the same time, a magnitude 2.5 quake struck the provinces of Caserta and Isernia in the southern Campania region. Earthquakes occur frequently in Italy, which is criss-crossed by seismic fault lines. A powerful earthquake in the northern Italian Emilia-Romagna region in May last year killed 26 people, left 20,000 homeless, damaged many buildings including historic monuments and cost its economy billions of euros. –Adnkronos