A shallow 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck central Italy in the early hours of the morning, decimating the small town of Amatrice, about 140km northeast of Rome.
RAI state television is reporting that two people have already been confirmed dead in the earthquake, although it is not clear if these people were in Amatrice.
The town’s mayor told RAI that people are trapped under the rubble.
“The roads in and out of town are cut off,” said Sergio Pirozzi. “Half the town is gone. There are people under the rubble … there’s been a landslide and a bridge might collapse.”
The below images are believed to be of Amatrice:
Amatrice @SkyTG24 pic.twitter.com/JElPrnDzd7
— flavio maccarone (@magar81) August 24, 2016
ITALY #EARTHQUAKE: Damage in Amatrice, Italy pic.twitter.com/exRFejnKlt
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) August 24, 2016
The earthquake struck 10km southeast of Norcia, a town just over 40km away from Amatrice in the province of Perugia in southeastern Umbria.
It hit Italy around just after 3:30am on Wednesday morning.
We’ll update this story as it continues to unfold.
Photo: Twitter / Flavio Maccarone.
