A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit the Italian region of Mugello on Monday, sending panicked residents into the streets but causing damages to buildings!The quake, centered some 31 km (19 miles) northeast of Florence in Tuscany, hit at 4:37 am (0330 GMT), after a series of smaller quakes, according to the national institute for geophysics and vulcanology (INGV).
Residents fled their buildings in the rain, congregating outside or in their cars to await authorities. “The quake went on for a while, especially the first one, things fell down at a supermarket but for the moment we haven’t seen any damage to people or things,” said Filippo Carla’ Campa, mayor of the town of Vicchio.A resident of Barberino del Mugello said his neighbors were panicking getting out of the building. “Paintings fell off the walls, bookcases fell over,” he told Rai 24.

In Barberino del Mugello, the 17th-centuryΒ church suffered a crack in one side, television images showed. Schools were closed in the region and some trains throughΒ Florence were canceled or delayed.

Italy is frequently struck by seismic activity, often devastating. Most recently, a series of strong quakes hit centralΒ ItalyΒ in lateΒ 2016Β and earlyΒ 2017, killing 300 people. In 1919, the area was hit by anΒ earthquakeΒ that killed 100 people.