Schools in Pozzuoli and Bagnoli to be closed on Thursday after Campi Flegrei earthquake which was felt strongly in Naples.

Italy's Campi Flegrei, a highly seismic area near Naples in the southern Campania region, was shaken by a 4.4-magnitude earthquake in the early hours of Thursday 13 March.

The earthquake occurred at 01.25 at a depth of two kilometres in Pozzuoli, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said in a statement.

The quake was the same high intensity as the one last May - the strongest to hit Campi Flegrei in 40 years - and comes about a month after the area was struck by a 3.9 magnitude earthquake.

The tremor caused structural damage to buildings in Pozzuoli and the Bagnoli area west of Naples where panicked residents ran into the streets, many of them spending the night in their cars.

[DATI #RIVISTI] #terremoto Md 4.4 ore 01:25 IT del 13-03-2025 a Campi Flegrei Prof= 2.5 Km #INGV_41908352 https://t.co/CHfHIxhFYj

— INGVterremoti (@INGVterremoti) March 13, 2025

Firefighters rescued a woman in Pozzuoli after the ceiling in her house collapsed, while in Bagnoli rescuers worked to free people trapped in their homes, with some residents climbing out windows, according to news agency ANSA.

Schools in Pozzuoli, Bacoli and Bagnoli are set to be closed on Thursday as a precautionary measure, local authorities said.

Bacoli mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione, writing on social media, urged local residents to "remain calm" and to get their information and updates from official channels.

Campi Flegrei

Declared a regional park 20 years ago, the Campi Flegrei area is a highly seismic zone of supervolcanic calderas, situated to the west of Naples and about 50 kilometres from Mount Vesuvius.

The Campi Flegrei volcano last erupted in 1538 however earthquakes have been common in the area since 1950, with a surge of seismic unrest in the early 1980s.

Experts believe the recent spike in seismic activity is linked to bradyseism, a phenomenon that involves the gradual uplift or descent of part of the earth's surface, caused by the filling or emptying of underground magma chambers or hydrothermal activity.

There are 15 towns in the Campi Felgrei area with a combined population of more than half a million people living in the so-called 'red zone' most at risk.

Last year the Italian government announced new measures in light of the increased seismic activity in the area, updating emergency plans for a possible mass evacuation.

This is a developing story....

Photo ANSA