In April 2009, a 6.3-magnitude quake hit about 28 miles southeast of Wednesdays quake, killing 295 people, injuring more than 1,000 and leaving 55,000 homeless, the USGS says.
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The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a 6.2-magnitude quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers [six miles] southeast of Norcia – a town and commune in Perugia, central Italy. Many of those killed or missing were visitors.
In the town of Amatrice, the damage was so extensive that its mayor told The Associated Press, “The town isn’t here anymore”. At least 63 people were killed, Italian news agency Ansa said. “People are stuck underneath the rubble”.
The local hospital was also badly hit, forcing the wounded and stretcher-bearers to gather in front of the building.
“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.
Residents were digging their neighbors out by hand, as emergency crews had not arrived in force.
At least 60 people died in the towns of Accumoli and Amatrice alone, Civil Protection service chief Fabrizio Curcio said on a visit to Amatrice with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
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.
The Vatican said six of its firefighters travelled to the town of Amatrice to help civil protection workers look for survivors still under the rubble and assist those already rescued.
Most of the damage was in the Lazio and Marche regions.
Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UCEI, issued a statement saying Italy’s Jews expressed full solidarity with the victims of the quake and were also ready to mobilize “in a concrete and immediate way to confront the current state of emergency”. Residents of Rome were woken by the tremors, which rattled furniture, swayed lights and set off vehicle alarms in most of central Italy.
The State Department is also asking US citizens in Burma to contact relatives to let them know you’re OK.
Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.
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The last major natural disaster to hit the country struck the central city of L’Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people.
