Two Carlisle women have spoken of the moment they felt the after-effects of the dramatic earthquake that shook central Italy.

Tracey Harris-Williams and her friend Leona Pennington, were enjoying a short break in Rome when the quake – which measured 6.6 magnitude on the Richter scale – struck on Sunday morning.

Despite being more than 100km away from where the earthquake struck in Norcia, both Tracey and Leona were startled when the seven-storey building – the Core De Roma Suites – they were staying in began to shake at about 7.30am.

The tremor of the quake caused a wall in their room to crack.

“We were both standing up in the room when the first tremor came,” Leona, who lives in the city centre told the News & Star.

“It was the sort of swaying you get when you’re on a boat. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it happening but then it happened again and I just looked at Tracey.”

“I’ve never seen Leona put on a pair of leggings quicker than that,” Tracey, from Stanwix, added.

“We’d done a bit of research and knew that there could be potential aftershocks. Because the building was seven storeys, we just had to get out.

“It only lasted about two seconds each time, but Tracey was cool, calm and collected,” Leona, 52, said. “But the building is like a lot of them in Rome, there’s a lot of stairs and doors which are all locked, so we didn’t manage to leave before it was over.”

Tracey – also 52 and deputy manager of the Acorn Centre at the Carleton Clinic – said that there were three or four tremors in total and that it was all over within around 30 seconds.

“It was scary,” she added. “It’s the fear of the unknown. But no-one else was panicking so you realise it probably isn’t that bad.”

Although there were no fatalities, it was reported that six people had to be pulled from rubble in Norcia.

Italy’s civil protection agency reported that the earthquake – the country’s biggest since 1980 – had left around 15,000 people homeless.

“Everyone in Rome has been going about their business as normal, but they’re all aware of what happened,” Tracey said.

“It’s similar to when Carlisle flooded. Although you weren’t directly affected, you feel a lot of compassion for the people that were caught up in it.”

The pair – who flew out on Saturday morning and returned last night – said that the building had been closed as a result.

“We were offered a new room because of the crack,” Tracey said. “But they’ve got partners here who deal with this sort of thing so it’s being taken care of, but the owner did decide to close the building.”