Fear in Sicily as 4.8 earthquake struck north of Catania – Earthquake was also registered in Malta – Minor damages recorded – Eighty year old pulled alive from rubble – Airport Operational (Updated with Photos)
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People flocked on the streets in the cities near the epicentre of a 4.8 earthquake recorded which was recorded in the north of Catania. Minor damage was recorded. The earthquake was also felt in Taormina, Syracuse and Ragusa.
According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv), the epicenter is between the municipalities of Viagrande and Trecastagni to the north of Catania and the hypocentre only one kilometer deep. And just the superficiality of the shock helped to amplify the effect.
Four wounded so far, an eighty year old man was pulled from the rubble. Numerous damage to churches and old homes, mostly in the area of Zafferana Etnea. A section of the Catania-Messina motorway, A18, between Acireale and Giarre, closed due to the presence of suspicious “injuries” on the asphalt. The emergency car left immediately, and before dawn the head of the Department of the Civil Protection, Angelo Borrelli, convened the Operational Committee in Rome.
The earthquake was so far registered in Viagrande, Trecastagni, Acireale, Lavinaio, Pedara, Giarre, Blandano, Sanbuco, Zafferana Etnea, Nicolosi, Aci Catena, Pennisi, Linera, Santa Venerina. Some damages have been recorded in the areas hit.
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“We are alive by a miracle,” repeat the two wounded who are part of a Fleri family. The walls of their house have collapsed: “We were in bed – rebuilds the head of family – we woke up with a start and saw the walls collapse on us. Fortunately, the furniture protected us from the rubble “.
An eighty year old from Zafferana Etnea was extracted from the rubble of his house where the earthquake surprised him in his sleep. He taken to the hospital with an ambulance he was accepted in the emergency room in green code for contusions to the head. The same fate was reserved for an inhabitant of Pisano.
In the last hours Etna has registered an additional surge of the tremor values of its internal magmatic conduits, signal of the presence of great ‘energy’ and moving magma that pushes on the volcanic walls.
From midnight there were several earthquake tremors above magnitude 2, one of which was 3.3, at 01: 09.
The earthquakes were also registered in Malta’s Seismic research centre.
