Homes were evacuated and many people slept in their cars or on the street after the strongest earthquake in 40 years shook the area around the sprawling Campi Flegrei supervolcano close to Naples.
Local media reports said cracks had formed in buildings and chunks of masonry had collapsed. Schools were closed on Tuesday in Pozzuoli and a cluster of towns and districts of Naples. “We are used to the quakes – but this one was very frightening as it was the strongest in 40 years. We could feel the ground move as we walked.”Seismic activity on Campi Flegrei, which is home to at least 360,000 people across seven of the most at-risk inhabited hubs, has intensified in, with the frequency and strength of the quakes increasing as the caldera, the basin at the top of the volcano, weakens and pressure beneath it builds.
The 7-mile Campi Flegrei caldera is a much larger volcano than the nearby, cone-shaped Vesuvius, which destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in AD79, and is much more active.