Important Takeaways:

• A 4.4-magnitude earthquake struck the volcanic area around Naples overnight, causing several light injuries, damaging buildings and sending terrified residents into the streets, officials said on Thursday.
• The quake, which was followed by several much smaller tremors, was the biggest to hit the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) area in southern Italy for 10 months. It occurred around 1:25am at a depth of 2.5 kilometers, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), and raised residents from their beds.
• Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was constantly monitoring the situation and was in contact with the relevant officials.
• Seismic activity is nothing new in the area, which is an active caldera — the hollow left after an eruption — the largest in Europe. It stretches from the outskirts of Naples into the sea, measuring some 12 by 15km.
• But many of the 500,000 inhabitants living in the danger zone had already been spooked by a 4.4-magnitude quake in May 2024, which was the biggest for 40 years. At that time, there were no injuries or any major structural damage.
• Naples mayor Manfredi told RTL Radio that Thursday’s quake was a “particularly intense tremor”, similar to that of last year but “with an epicenter closer to the city of Naples, so it was felt more in the city”.
• A resurgence of seismic activity in the early 1980s led to a mass evacuation, which reduced the nearby city of Pozzuoli to a ghost town. Specialists, however, say a full-blown eruption in the near future remains unlikely.

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