An earthquake yesterday on one of the Aeolian islands off Sicily caused landslides but no major damage or injuries, a public safety official said.

“No one has been hospitalised, but we are monitoring the situation,” the official said, rejecting earlier media reports of up to seven injured.

The quake measured 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale and struck shortly before 3 p.m. some six kilometres from Lipari island and its epicentre was some 19 kilometres deep, according to the National Geophysical and Vulcanology Institute.

The Ansa news agency said some people panicked by the earthquake and jumped into the water where they were stung by jellyfish, while the Sky TG-24 news channel said up to seven had suffered light injuries. Lipari is the largest in the volcanic Aeolian archipelago in the Tyrrenian Sea north of Sicily.

Seismic activity is frequent in Italy, the site of friction between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.

A major earthquake struck in April 2009 in the central Italian university town of L’Aquila, claiming 308 lives in the region.