The 4.7-magnitude earthquake at Campi Flegrei, the strongest recorded in the volcanic caldera in 40 years, has left around 300 people displaced. Officials warn further tremors above magnitude 3 remain possible.
The strongest earthquake recorded in Italy’s Campi Flegrei volcanic region in 40 years struck west of Naples on Friday evening. The scale of its impact has continued to grow in the day since, with the number of people injured rising to 26 and around 300 now displaced from their homes.
The magnitude 4.7 quake struck at 7.46pm local time on Friday, with its epicentre near the Solfatara crater in Pozzuoli, at a depth of around three kilometres, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). It was felt strongly across Naples and its hinterland, as well as on the islands of Procida and Ischia, and even reached the city centre, where celebrations marking the centenary of SSC Napoli were under way at the time.
Fabio Ciciliano, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Department, confirmed on Saturday that 26 people had been injured, with 21 treated at the hospital in Pozzuoli and five at the hospital in Giugliano. Around 300 people have been left without access to their homes. Civil protection volunteers set up 185 emergency beds at a sports arena in Pozzuoli overnight to accommodate those displaced.
More than 60 aftershocks recorded
INGV has recorded more than 60 aftershocks since Friday’s main tremor, the strongest measuring magnitude 3.8 late on Friday evening in the Gulf of Pozzuoli, followed by a further shock of magnitude 3.1 early on Saturday. Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci warned that the seismic swarm is continuing, and that further earthquakes above magnitude 3 remain possible in the coming days.
Friday’s tremor surpassed two previous magnitude 4.6 events recorded in the area in 2025, making it the strongest earthquake registered in Campi Flegrei since continuous instrumental monitoring began.
The worst damage has been reported in Pozzuoli, where falling masonry, collapsing building façades and landslides have damaged homes, businesses and parked vehicles. Some uninhabited buildings collapsed entirely. Musumeci said the port of Pozzuoli remains closed, with maritime traffic diverted to Naples, and access has been prohibited to state-owned maritime areas beneath the collapsed rocky cliffs, as well as to coastal waters between Portici and Bagnoli. Anti-looting patrols have been put in place by police in the affected areas.
Rail and metro services, including the Cumana and Circumflegrea lines connecting Naples with communities across the Phlegraean Fields, were suspended for safety inspections, though services at the main Naples hub resumed overnight. The earthquake caused delays of more than six hours across the network.
A caldera under close watch
Campi Flegrei sits within Europe’s largest volcanic crater and is currently in an active phase of bradyseism, the gradual rising and falling of the ground surface driven by magmatic fluids and gases moving beneath it. Since the current period of unrest began around 2005, the ground near Pozzuoli has risen by more than 140cm, with the rate of seismic activity increasing steadily alongside that uplift.
Authorities say there is no indication of an imminent eruption risk, but the region remains under close and continuous monitoring by INGV and Italy’s Civil Protection authorities.
