A powerful pre-dawn quake devastated mountain villages in central Italy on Wednesday, leaving at least 38 people dead and dozens more injured, trapped or missing.
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The magnitude six quake struck at 3.36am (1.36am GMT) and was felt across a broad swathe of central Italy, including in Rome and from the Lazio region into Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast.
Hardest hit were the towns of Accumoli, Amatrice and Pescara del Tronto.
Emergency services began to assess the situation and carry out the relief effort but have not yet reached some of the worst hit areas, where it is expected the death toll will climb.
Residents of Rome, some 170 kilometres (105 miles) from the epicentre, were woken by the quake, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy.
The first quake struck around 3:30 a.m. local time near Norcia, a small town roughly 105 miles from Rome, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. “I just managed to put a pillow on my head and I wasn’t hit luckily, just slightly injured my leg”.
Amatrice, where the local authorities confirmed five deaths, was packed with visitors at the peak of the summer season when the quake struck, destroying the hilltop village’s main street.
The national Civil Protection Department said some survivors would be put up elsewhere in central Italy, while others would be housed in tents that were being dispatched to the area.
In 2009, a 6.3 magnitude quake struck in the same region, killing more than 300 people.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude was 6.2 and the epicenter was closer to Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict.
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Sergio Perozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, told RAI “roads in and out of town are cut off”.
The first quake was followed by at least 11 tremors in what the seismological center described as a “high aftershock rate”.
A family of four; including two young children are trapped, feared dead in their collapsed house based in Accumoli; this was reported by the Mayor of the town. “There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there”.
“It was one of the most lovely towns of Italy and now there’s nothing left”, she said, too distraught to give her name.
“There are so many dead I can not make an estimate”, he told RAI state television.
In Amatrice, the Ansa news agency reported that two bodies had been pulled from one building.
“We’re digging, digging. hoping to find someone alive”, he told the affiliate.
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Dozens of aftershocks continued into the early hours of the morning, with some measuring as strong as 5.1.
