Three earthquakes hit northern Italy near Parma, no damages reported

Three earthquakes of magnitude 2.6, 3.3 and 4.4 on Sunday shook the region around the northern Italian town of Parma, but no damage were reported.

The strongest temblor took place at 1.37 pm (12:37 GMT) and had its epicentre at a depth of 32 kilometres, near the town of Fornovo di Taro, Italy's volcanic institute INGV said.

The two other seismic events also took place between 1 and 2 pm, INGV indicated.

The earthquakes "were felt by the population but no injuries to people or damages have been reported," Italy's Civil Protection agency said.

"There was a lot of fear that led people to call the fire department and the Carabinieri [police] since the town hall is closed today, but we had no reports of damage," Fornovo di Taro mayor Emanuela Grenti was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

Most of Italy is earthquake-prone: The last serious event took place in August, when two people were killed by a 4.0-magnitude quake in the southern island of Ischia.