Italy earthquake: Huge 5.6 tremor recorded on Italian coast was felt in multiple countries

Historic Italy was rocked by a massive 5.6-scale magnitude earthquake off the coast of Rimini this morning which "shook" several cities, including Rome.

The massive tremor was also felt in other countries, including Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and San Marino, although there is not believed to have been significant damage caused in the affected areas.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the earthquake was at a depth of around 10km, around 64 km east of picturesque Rimini, and lasted several seconds.

It was followed by two smaller tremors of 3.1 and 3.4 magnitude at around 7am local time - 6am in the UK.

Terrified members of the public ran into the streets as emergency services attended the scenes where several buildings have reportedly shown cracks.

The earthquake was felt at around 7am, leading to people rushing into the streets in terror (Risklayer)

Tremors are said to have been felt throughout northern Italy, including Bologna and Romagna, as well as the likes of Bologna and Rimini and Rome.

One terrified social media user said: "Mamma mia, here in Rimini so much fright."

Videos posted on social media showed food and drink had been thrown to the ground in supermarkets.

Rubble spotted at a train station in Italy as services were cancelled (Twitter)

More of the damage seen in Italy after this morning's quakes (Twitter)

The Vigili del Fuoco, Italy's fire and rescue service, wrote on Twitter: "A ML 5.7 earthquake shock was recorded at 7:07 am on the Adriatic coast of the Marche region.

"At the moment no requests for help or reports of damage have been received in the operations room of the #vigilidelfuoco command."

It added some people had requested checks of buildings.

Emergency services are checking buildings for structural damage (Twitter)

People were woken by the ground shaking at around 7am local time (Twitter)

Train services on the Adriatic Line have been suspended as a result of the quake owing to suspected damage to railway tracks.

Ancona mayor, Valeria Mancinelli, announced all education centres in the area would be closed.

He said: "As a precaution, the lessons of all the schools in the city, of every order and grade, from infant-toddler centres to high school, are suspended.

Italy was rocked by a massive 5.6-scale magnitude earthquake off the coast of Rimini (Getty Images)

"The University is also closed."

One resident said of the quake: "I don't know I seem to be living an apocalypse, not even two months ago flood flooding everything now very strong earthquake in the same area.

"I can't believe it."

Local media reported so far no casualties have so far been found and no buildings have fallen.

The Marche region was rocked by an earthquake, followed by two smaller ones (UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Matteo Ricci, mayor of Pesaro, told Ansa: "We are carrying out checks, a lot of people are on the street and at the moment there are no major damage but we are doing all possible checks on all public buildings.

"The schools have been closed as a precaution. There was great fear because the blow was strong and therefore we fear consequences."

The tremor is the second to hit Italy in a week, following a 5.1 magnitude tremor in Calabria, in the south of Italy on November 1.

The strongest earthquake to hit Italy was in November 1980 near Naples with a magnitude of 6.9 which caused the deaths of thousands of people.