At least 38 reported dead after strong earthquake rocks central Italy

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Fox News:

"The town isn't here anymore," said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice.

 

The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast.

 

Premier Matteo Renzi planned to head to the zone later Wednesday and promised: "No family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind."

 

The hardest-hit towns were Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, some 100 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto further east. Italy's civil protection agency said the preliminary toll was 38 dead, several hundred injured and thousands in need of temporary housing, though it stressed the numbers were fluid.

 

The center of Amatrice was devastated, with entire buildings razed and the air thick with dust and smelling strongly of gas.

 

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Italy quake toll rises as rescuers struggle to free people from rubble

 

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck a string of towns and villages across a mountainous swath of central Italy has risen to 73, with more people still unaccounted for.

 

The 6.2-magnitude quake struck at 3.36am when most people were still asleep, razing homes, buckling roads and burying residents under mounds of rubble in the hardest-hit towns of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.

 

Live Italy earthquake: at least 73 killed in mountain villages – live

Mayor of Amatrice says half of the town is ‘isn’t here any more’ after severe earthquake hits central Italy and is felt in Rome

Residents and emergency services struggled to free victims from homes that collapsed into piles of masonry in a remote area straddling the regions of Umbria, Marche and Lazio. The quake was felt as far away as Rome, more than 93 miles (150km) away.

It was Italy’s most powerful earthquake since 2009, when more than 300 people died in and around the city of Aquila, just to the south of Wednesday’s quake.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/italy-earthquake-rescue-teams-dig-through-rubble-as-death-toll-rises