Two elderly people in Palermo died from heart attacks and around 20 were slightly injured as a strong earthquake rocked Sicily early today.
In the capital Palermo and other towns on the western side of the island, people were sent running out into the streets in fear, when the quake, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale, hit at about 3.20 a.m. (1.20 a.m. Irish time), causing traffic jams when streets are normally deserted.
No severe damage has been reported although some masonry fell from buildings in several cities, and cracks appeared in older buildings, officials said.
Officials at the national seismographic institute in Rome said the quake's epicentre was in the Mediterranean Sea some 30 to 40 kilometres northeast of Palermo.
The earthquake was also felt in cities in the south of Italy's largest and most populous southern island, including Catania, Messina, Trapani, Agrigento, Enna, and Caltanissetta.
The first quake was followed by two smaller quakes within an hour, each measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale, and seismographic officials said instruments had registered more than 20 quakes during the night.