Earthquake near Lucca in Tuscany

The 4.8 magnitude tremor was felt in Florence and Milan

A few minutes ago via twitter I was told by one of my followers in Pistoia that Florence and Pisa had been rattled by an earthquake. A quick search revealed that a magnitude 4.8 or so tremor hit at 15:48 Italian time.

The epicentre was some 13 miles (30 kilometres) north of seaside town Viareggio and not far from Lucca. A list of the places within the earthquake zone can be found on Il Post here: Terremoto tra Toscana ed Emilia

Low intensity aftershocks (magnitude 2.0 to 2.3) are continuing in the area. The tremors can be followed on Twitter here: @INGVterremoti - which is Italy’s seismic activity monitoring service.

The 15:48 tremor shook a large section of northern Italy and was felt in skyscrapers as far away as Milan, even if this Milan resident did not notice the earth moving.

While there are no reports of injuries or damage yet, Italian newspaper Il Messaggero is saying that some power supplies have been affected and telecommunications services are apparently down in the area of Tuscany hit by the earthquake.

Civil defense authorities in Tuscany are carrying out checks by helicopter to ascertain whether any damage has occurred.

The map below shows the approximate area of the epicentre which is close to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana:

Updates will be added as more news emerges.