![]() ![]() The epicenter of the quake was in L'Aquila, a town about 100km northeast of Rome. It seemed the bed was walking across the room by itself with us on it.Early Monday morning, the Italian region of Abruzzo was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Lina Mercantini of Ceselli, Umbria, told Reuters: “It was so strong. ![]() The first two confirmed victims were an elderly couple whose home collapsed in Pescara del Tronto in the Marche region, east of the epicentre, according to national broadcaster Rai.Īleandro Petrucci, the mayor of nearby Arquata del Tronto, said Pescara was one of “two or three hamlets that have just completely disintegrated”.Īnother person died in Accumoli and two corpses were recovered from the rubble of a collapsed building in Amatrice.Ī family of four including two young children were trapped, feared dead, in their collapsed house in Accumoli, according to its mayor. A spokesman for the fire department, Luca Cari, said there had been reports of victims in the quake zone, but he did not have any precise details. Italy’s civil protection agency said the earthquake was severe. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre put the magnitude at 6.1 and said the epicentre was north-east of Rome, near Rieti. The US Geological Survey said the quake hit near the town of Norcia in the region of Umbria at 3.36am. The tremors were sufficiently strong to wake residents of central Rome, 90 miles (150km) away. “Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life.”įirst images of damage showed debris in the street and some collapsed buildings in towns and villages that dot much of the Umbrian countryside. Stefano Petrucci, the mayor of Accumoli, said the situation as dawn broke was worse than feared. We are setting up a place for the bodies.”Įarlier he told the broadcaster: “Half of the town is gone.” Access to the village had been blocked, he added, making it difficult for rescue services to get through by road.Īmatrice is famous in Italy as a beauty spot and is a popular holiday destination for Romans seeking cool mountain air at the height of the summer. “There are dozens of victims, many under the rubble. “We have already extracted several dead bodies but we do not know how many there are below. ![]() “There are so many dead I cannot make an estimate,” he told RAI state television. ![]() Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, near Rieti, reported extensive damage in his mountain village, which was packed with visitors at the peak of the summer season. As daylight dawned, residents and civil protection workers began digging out with shovels and bulldozers as dazed residents huddled in the streets. The hardest-hit places were reported as Arquata del Tronto, Amatrice and Accumoli, with residents running into the streets as aftershocks continued into the early morning hours. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesĬlose to the epicentre of the quake near the town of Norcia in the region of Umbria, witnesses told Italian media that numerous buildings had collapsed in communities, with an increase in the death toll highly likely. Rescuers search for victims among the rubble of a house after a strong earthquake hit Amatrice. ![]()
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