Quake rattles Italian Alpine area

An earthquake shook the Italian Alpine region near the ski resort town of Courmayeur. No immediate damage reprted.

The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.1 on the Richter scale, said Andrea Tertulliani of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics in Rome. A quake of 4.0 magnitude can do moderate damage.

Tertulliani, speaking from the institute's operations room, said the epicenter was near Courmayeur in northern Italy, the AP reports.

The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from Aosta in northwest Italy, said that people on the lower floors of some buildings reported hearing a creaking sound from the quake, which lasted a few seconds.