At least 37 people were killed as a 6.2-magnitude quake fired off a swarm of aftershocks that rippled through central Italy, waking residents as it rumbled all the way to Rome.
Entire blocks of Amatrice, a historic town near the heart of the quakes, were reduced to rubble after the first earthquake struck early Wednesday at around 3:30 a.m. local time in the mountainous provinces of Umbria and Perugia.
“The town isn’t here anymore,”
Amatrice Mayor Sergio Pirozzi told state-run RAI radio.
He feared “dozens” were dead in the toppled city.
The death toll rose at daybreak when emergency crews rushed to find survivors in the hard-hit towns of Amatrice, Pescara del Tronto and Accumoli, digging into leveled buildings with shovels, bulldozers and their bare hands.
At least five people — including a family of four — died when a building in the small town of Accumoli collapsed.
"Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life," Accumoli Mayor Stefano Petrucci told Reuters.
The earthquake knocked down power for more than 2,700 residents in the age-old town and brought stone buildings tumbling to the ground near the city’s center.
A woman wrapped herself in a blanket and sat outside the remains of her home.
"It was one of the most beautiful towns of Italy and now there's nothing left," she said, too distraught to give her name. "I don't know what we'll do."
Frightened people ran into the streets in central Umbria and Le Marche regions shortly after the quake erupted.
In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake tore through central Italy and killed more than 300 people.
The devastating death toll sent six scientists and one government official to court on manslaughter charges for failing to communicate the risk of a major quake in the wake of numerous low-magnitude tremors, according to Agence France-Presse reports. The accused scientists reassured the public that the smaller tremors did not indicate an impending disaster.
All seven were found guilty in 2012, but their convictions were appealed two years later.
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