Tremors and earthquakes are almost a daily occurrence in Italy. The reason could be attributed to the movements in the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, which are in conflict with each other.
Italy was hit by four deadly tremors in the span of four hours on Wednesday. The tremors almost brought back the fear and threat to the hilly terrain which had witnessed a massive quake last year during the same time.
These back to back earthquakes led to collapse of several buildings but fortunately fortunately no casualties were reported.
The hardest hit towns and villages were in the regions of Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche, where around 300 people lost their lives last August.
After unusually extreme cold weather, heavy snow blanketed the area over the last week. Snowstorms have made the job of emergency services so difficult, that the vehicles were struggling to reach remote areas of mountain villages and outlying farms.
These quakes were so strong that Rome could also feel the tremors. Locals were seen rushing out onto lanes, schools were ordered to shut and the metro operations was temporarily suspended.
The first tremor was felt around 10.25 am local time and the last one was felt after 2.30 pm. The magnitudes of the quakes varied between 5.3 and 5.7.
The bell tower of a church had also crashed down in Amatrice, the same town which was worst hit by the August earthquake last year.
The earthquakes have aggravated an already difficult situation. The bad weather has left around 100,000 people without power. Further there were warnings of possible avalanches.
The situation is extremely grim. The issue is not about the earthquakes but rather the snow as there are isolated villages which are shrouded in two meters of snow.
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