ROME // A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 rocked central and southern Italy on Sunday, said the US geological survey, sending already quake-damaged buildings crumbling.
The tremor — felt from Rome to Venice — struck at 7.40am (10.40am UAE time) six kilometres north of the small town of Norcia, and came four days after two powerful quakes hit central Italy and left thousands homeless.
Nearly 300 people died in a major quake on August 24 in the notoriously seismic-prone region.
No fatalities were reported in Sunday’s quake, said Fabrizio Curcio, head of the national civil protection agency.
“We are checking, there are several people injured but for the moment we have had no reports of victims.”
Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by the quake at.
Many people had still been sleeping in cars or evacuated to shelters or hotels in other areas after last Wednesday strong jolts, which measured 5.5 and 6.1 magnitude respectively.
“Everything collapsed. I can see columns of smoke, it’s a disaster, a disaster,” Marco Rinaldi, the mayor of Ussita, one of the pretty mountain villages hit hardest by the last quake, told the ANSA news agency.
“I was sleeping in my car, I saw hell break out,” he said.
Eyewitnesses said the St Benedict cathedral, the 14th century cathedral in one of the city’s main piazza, crumbled in the Sunday morning quake and only its facade remains standing. Priests prayed in the piazza amid the rubble as a fireman appealed to a priest to help maintain calm among dozens of residents gathered there, including some in wheelchairs.
“We have to keep people calm. Prayer can help. I don’t want people to go searching for family members,” the fireman appealed on the cameras of Italy’s Sky News 24.
Another hard-hit city, Castelsantangelo sul Nera, also suffered new damage. In Arquata del Tronto, which had been devastated by the August earthquake, its mayor Aleandro Petrucci said, “There are no towns left.”
“Everything came down,” he said.
The quake was felt throughout the Italian peninsula, with reports as far north as Bolzano and as far south as Bari. Residents rushed into the streets in Rome, where ancient palazzi shook, swayed and lurched for a prolonged spell.
The head of the civil protection authority in the March region, Cesare Spuri, said there have been reports of buildings collapsing in many cities.
“We are trying to understand if people are under the rubble,” Mr Spuri said.
The European-Mediterranean seismological centre put the magnitude at 6.6 or 6.5 with an epicentre 132 kilometres north-east of Rome and 67km east of Perugia, near the epicentre of last week’s temblors. The US geological survey put the magnitude at 6.6.
* Associated Press, Agence France-Presse