Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Deadly earthquake hits northern Italy

  • An unknkown number of people are killed, civil protection officials say
  • The quake hits the same region where 7 people were killed 9 days ago

Rome (CNN) -- Several people in northern Italy were killed by an earthquake on Tuesday, civil protection officials told CNN, saying they did not yet have a confirmed number of dead.

The earthquake came nine days after a quake in the same region killed seven people.

Tuesday's earthquake was centered in the province of Modena, near Bologna. The towns of Mirandola and Cavezzo were closest to the epicenter, civil protection authorities said.

Some train services have been suspended for safety reasons, and high speed trains from Bologna to Milan and Florence, among others, are running at slower speeds, train operators said. There are no trains stuck on tracks, Trenitalia said.

There have been at least three aftershocks since the Tuesday morning earthquake, the Italian geological service said.