Italy earthquake: Powerful tremor believed to be strongest to hit country in 30 years – as it happened
Region already reeling from two tremors in past week
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- Powerful earthquake hits central and southern Italy
- 6.6 magnitude quake may be strongest to hit country since 1980
- Reports say it struck at depth of just 10km
- No casualties have been reported yet
- Region already reeling from two tremors in past week
- Quake felt as far away as Rome and also in Croatia
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A powerful 6.6 magnitude earthquake has hit the same area of central and southern Italy struck by a quake in August and a pair of aftershocks last week
It destroyed already damaged buildings after a week of quakes that have left thousands homeless. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by Sunday's 7:40am quake.
Many people still had been sleeping in cars or evacuated to shelters or hotels in other areas after a pair of strong jolts last Wednesday.
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 German Research Centre for Geosciences put the magnitude at 6.5 and said it had a depth of 10 kilometers, a relatively shallow quake near the surface but in the norm for the quake-prone Apennine Mountain region.
A powerful 6.6 magnitude earthquake has hit the same area of central and southern Italy struck by a quake in August and a pair of aftershocks last week.
It destroyed already damaged buildings after a week of quakes that have left thousands homeless.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by Sunday's 7:40am quake.
Many people still had been sleeping in cars or evacuated to shelters or hotels in other areas after a pair of strong jolts last Wednesday.
Television images showed nuns rushing out of their church and into the main piazza in Norcia as the clock tower appeared about to crumble.
The mayor of quake-hit Ussita said a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the crumbled buildings.
"It's a disaster, a disaster!" Mayor Marco Rinaldi told the ANSA news agency. "I was sleeping in the car and I saw hell."
Eyewitnesses said Norcia's St. Benedict cathedral, the 14th century cathedral in one of the city's main piazza, crumbled in the quake and only its facade remains standing.
Norcia city assessor Giuseppina Perla told the ANSA news agency: "It's as if the whole city fell down."
The head of Italy's civil protection agency has said there are no immediate reports of deaths.
Fabrizio Curcio said some people suffered injuries as numerous buildings that had resisted previous temblors in August and last week collapsed. He did not provide details on the nature or extent of the injuries.
Mr Curcio said the agency is using helicopters to tend to the injured and assess damage.
He said 1,300 people displaced on Wednesday by a pair of powerful aftershocks to an August quake that killed nearly 300 had been evacuated to the coast in recent days and that the operation would continue.
The 6.6 magnitude quake is believed to be the strongest to hit the country since 1980.
A 6.9-magnitude quake in southern Campania that year killed some 3,000 people and caused extensive damage.
A Catholic Church leader in one of the two regions where another earthquake has caused buildings to collapse is advising parish priests to avoid holding Mass inside churches.
Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti told priests in the Umbria region to hold Mass outdoors following the earthquake as well as on All Saint's Day on Tuesday, a holiday on which Catholic's remember the dead.
The news agency ANSA said Mr Bassetti, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Umbria, made the decision after consulting with the head of the region.
The earthquake has damaged St Paul's Basilica in Rome, where cracks have appeared along the outer colonnade.
A crack along the outer colonnade of St. Paul's Basilica closed following the earthquake in central Italy, Rome, Italy, 30 October, 2016 (EPA)
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