Earthquake halts play in Serie A game between Pescara and Atalanta
The ground moved for the Italian top-flight outfits as the Stadio Adriatico-Giovanni Cornacchia was rocked by a tremor which caused a short break in proceedings
The earthquakes that hit central Italy on Wednesday evening saw play halted during Pescara versus Atalanta, with two more Serie A games affected by the tremors.
The first shock came at 19:10 local time, with a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale, with a second shock with a magnitude of 6.1 following at 21:18.
Shocks were felt at Lazio versus Cagliari and at Fiorentina against Crotone, but the encounter between Pescara and Atalanta was affected the most.
The referee opted to halt play in the 32nd minute as the Stadio Adriatico-Giovanni Cornacchia was rocking, with panic briefly breaking out among spectators.
While understandably disappointed to have seen his side come unstuck on an eventuful evening, Pescara head coach Massimo Oddo admitted afterwards to being so engrossed in proceedings that an unscheduled break in play offered no excuse.
He said: “Yes, well…at the beginning I hadn’t understood (what was going on) but then we immediately realised.
“The game was held for a few minutes…even though, honestly, I was so focused on the game I hardly thought about it.”
Wednesday’s earthquakes come just two months after the deadly earthquake that cost hundreds of lives in late August.
The head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, stressed on Thursday morning that there have been no reports of serious injuries as of yet
