The shaking was felt across a large part of the region, including the capital, Rome, 150 kilometers away.
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The agency said that fatalities from the villages of Arquata and Pescara del Tronto, plus a little girl from Amatrice, who was pulled out of the rubble alive but died in hospital, were among the victims in the morgue. “The wound caused by the (2009) L’Aquila quake is still fresh, and we fear being forgotten…” the mayor added.
‘This is a town that is dead.
“The picture we got from our delegate in Amatrice are telling us a bad story of a small city nearly completely destroyed”, he said.
The Italian geological service put the magnitude at 6.0; the US Geological Survey reported 6.2 with the epicentre at Norcia, about 105 miles north-east of Rome, and with a relatively shallow depth of six miles.
About an hour after the quake, a 5.5-magnitude aftershock hit near Norcia, one of several that followed.
Mayor Sergio Perozzi, told state-run RAI radio that there were downed buildings in the city center and that the lights had gone out, the AP reported.
Several buildings collapsed in the mountain town of Amatrice, according to CNN affiliate RAI. People injured from the quake were also taken there.
But there were also signs of hope.
A strong natural disaster has devastated a string of mountain towns and villages in central Italy, killing dozens of people and leaving many unaccounted for. A family of four, including an eight-month-old baby and his brother, nine, were also reported dead in the town of Accumoli.
“Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more awful than we feared with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life”, Stefano Pertucci, mayor of Accumoli mayor, told RAI-TV.
Pope Francis has skipped his catechism lesson during his Wednesday general audience and instead led pilgrims in praying the rosary for the victims of Italy’s quake.
“The town isn’t here anymore”, he said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country will provide support to its “Italians friends and partners” if needed. “We stand, as ever, in solidarity with the Italian nation and are ready to assist in any way we can”.
The office of Premier Matteo Renzi tweeted that heavy equipment was on its way.
The quake hit at 03:36 (01:36 GMT), 100km (65 miles) north-east of Rome. Nobody was hurt there, the local municipality said. In April 2009, an quake with a magnitude of 6.3 hit central Italy, killing 295.
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Curcio said the latest seismic event was “severe” and “comparable” to the l’Aquila quake in its intensity, but was likely less deadly because it took place in an area that is less densely populated.
