Despite reassurances, quake myth rattles Rome.(News)

Byline: The Associated Press

ROME -- Rome was gripped by fear Wednesday over a purported prediction by a now-dead seismologist that a devastating temblor would strike the city on May 11, 2011.

Even as seismologists and officials sought to reassure residents and stress that earthquakes cannot be predicted, the quake myth took on a life of its own on the Internet.

Spurred by superstition, some Romans left town, just in case. The consumer group Aduc estimated 20 percent of Romans did not go to work. The quake did not happen. Instead, two quakes hit another Mediterranean nation, Spain.

The quake fear was based on the purported prediction of a major Roman quake attributed to self-taught seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979.

However, Paola Lagorio, president of the association in charge of Bendandi's documentation, said there's no evidence Bendandi ever made such a precise prediction.

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