2009 L'Aquila earthquake concrete elements of the fallen buildings "seemed to have been made poorly, possibly with sand". An official at Italy's Civil Protection Agency, Franco Barberi, said that "in California, an earthquake like this one would not have killed a single person". According to Italian media, L'Aquila's chief prosecutor has opened a probe into possible criminal blame for the collapses. Many people reported seeing peculiar sightings of light glows, flashes, lightning, flames and fireballs, all of which were considered candidates for earthquake light. 241 luminous phenomena were collected including photos and videos. At least 99 of such phenomena occurred before the main
April 2011 Fukushima earthquake Fukushima Hamadōri earthquake was succeeded by a number of smaller tremors; that same day, at least 11 earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 M or higher were recorded near its epicentre. Of the series, the strongest registered at a magnitude of 5.5 M and occurred within 3.5 hours after the initial quake. A shallow magnitude 6.0 M (6.4 M) earthquake and several smaller tremors struck the region on 12 April. The earthquake struck in the late afternoon near a moderately populated region of the Fukushima Prefecture, although most structures around the epicentre were resistant to earthquake shaking. Focussed at an unusually shallow