Lucia Ludzi, a spokesperson for the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanoes (INGV), said that a 3.9-magnitude earthquake recorded by INGV experts occurred at 4:59 p.m. local time on December 17. The center of the earthquake was just 6 km west of Milan, at a depth of 56 km from the Earth's surface.
The earthquake was felt in many different areas of the "Northern capital" of Italy, as well as in the suburbs. On the upper floors of some buildings, there were signs of shaking chandeliers and moved furniture. Different agencies of the city have received hundreds of phone calls from people calling to find out what is happening.
However, according to Milan Fire Department staff, no city residents called for help, nor were there any casualties or damage to their homes. The earthquake only slowed traffic in the city slightly and stalled some trains of local rail company Trenord.
"The earthquakes in Milan today can be compared to the earthquake recorded in this area 500 years ago. The only earthquake stronger than 5 on Richter occurred here on November 26, 2019. It was shocked by Monza (now a suburb of Milan) at that time," said Ludzi, head of INGV's Milan branch.
According to the current classification of earthquake-prone areas in Italy, the Milan area is classified as a third type, meaning that the probability of serious earthquakes is assessed as "low".
This explains the fact that Milanese people are very interested in the current fluctuations in the Earth's surface, a phenomenon that is extremely rare in their city.
