Earlier, the Italian Civil Protection Department said the hardest-hit were Lazio town of Amatrice and nearby Accumoli.
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Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier said at least 120 people were killed in the quake.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that Kerry had offered any U.S. assistance that Italy might require and made clear “the American people stand with Italians in this hard time”.
In Rome, residents said they felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks.
According to local media reports, in Accumoli alone, the mayor says there are some 1,500 people now homeless, NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports.
“We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante’s Inferno, ” said Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting Illica.
Rescue workers called Amatrice residents’ cellphones, and tried to get to those who answered, the affiliate reported.
In the Lazio village of Accumoli, the bodies of a young couple and their two children were recovered from the rubble of their collapsed home.
“We’re digging, digging. hoping to find someone alive”, he told the affiliate.
Tommaso della Longa, a spokesman for the Red Cross, said the images coming out of Amatrice are grim.
She added that rescue teams have reached some of the affected areas. “I went down to the lobby and there were a lot of people waiting there”.
Amatrice, known for its traditional all’amatriciana pasta sauce, had been gearing up to hold a festival celebrating the recipe this weekend.
Rescue crews using bulldozers and their bare hands raced to dig out survivors.
“It was one of the most handsome towns of Italy and now there’s nothing left”, a woman in Amatrice told the Associated Press.
Italy’s civil protection agency reported the death toll had risen to 159 by late Wednesday; at least 368 others were injured. He said he planned to visit the affected area Wednesday afternoon.
Renzi said that in times of trouble, Italy shows its true face. In the cable, the Amir expressed Kuwait’s solidarity with Italy over the quake which left a trail of death and destruction.
“That frankly is a testament to the expertise of the Italians in responding to situations like this, but if our friends in Italy need our help, particularly in dealing with a situation like this, you can rest assured that we’re going to provide it”, he told reporters. “People crying for help, help”.
Italy is no stranger to seismic activity.
Italian authorities say a magnitude-6 natural disaster in the central part of the country has killed at least 38 people.
Pope Francis has dispatched one-sixth of the Vatican’s tiny fire department to join rescue efforts following the quake that has devastated parts of central Italy.
Patients at the badly damaged hospital in Amatrice were moved into the streets.
“It was a pretty solid, scary quake”.
“We are waiting for the military”, said resident Alessandra Cappellanti. “We were very scared”. A police officer from Bagan said a Spanish holidaymaker was slightly hurt when the quake knocked her from the temple where she was watching the sunset.
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“It lasted for at least 30 seconds. The entire hotel was shaking”.
