An earthquake set off landslides in Slovenia and shook a large area of northeastern Italy Monday, including the lagoon city of Venice, but no serious injuries were immediately reported, officials said.
Slovenian rescue services said they were looking for two mountaineers state radio reported as missing in an area close to the epicenter of the tremor.
A spokeswoman at the Italian National Geophysics Institute said the tremor was relatively powerful.
“It was 5.2 on the Richter scale, pretty strong for the region,” she said.
In a statement, the institute said the epicenter was near Bovec, Slovenia, 15 km (9 miles) from the Italian border.
“We are still checking whether reports of two missing mountaineers are true,” Slovenian rescue services spokesman Klemen Grohar said, adding that the earthquake triggered two landslides but there had not been any reports of injuries.
Slovenian state radio quoted the country’s Office for Seismology as saying the tremor measured 4.9 on the Richter scale and was centered in Kobarid, 25 km from the ski resort of Bovec.
“With the exception of one house that collapsed, most of the damage to houses in Kobarid is superficial,” Kobarid police chief Igor Volk said.
“The police have not heard of any injuries but the inhabitants are shaken,” Volk said
The earthquake struck just after 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).
Earthquakes have rocked the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, next to Slovenia, in the past, including a tremor in 1976 that killed hundreds.
