A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has rocked central and southern Italy.

It has sent already damaged buildings crumbling after a week of quakes in the area that have left thousands homeless.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or death.

Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by the quake which struck at 7.40am local time.

Nuns rushed out of their church in Norcia as the clock tower appeared about to crumble.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put the magnitude at 6.6 or 6.5 with an epicentre of 132 kilometres north-east of Rome and 67 kilometres east of Perugia, near the epicentre of last week’s quakes.

The US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.6.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences put the magnitude at 6.5 and said it had a depth of 10 kilometres, a relatively shallow quake near the surface but in the norm for the quake-prone Apennine Mountain region. </s> A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has rocked central and southern Italy after a week of temblors that have left thousands homeless.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center put the magnitude at 6.6 or 6.5 with an epicenter 132 kilometers northeast of Rome and 67 kilometers east of Perugia, near the epicenter of last week’s temblors. The quake struck at 7-40 a.m. </s> A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has rocked central and southern Italy, sending already quake-damaged buildings crumbling after a week of temblors that have left thousands homeless.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or death. Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by Sunday’s 7:40 a.m. quake. Nuns rushed out of their church in Norcia as the clock tower appeared about to crumble.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center put the magnitude at 6.6 or 6.5 with an epicenter 132 kilometers northeast of Rome and 67 kilometers east of Perugia, near the epicenter of last week’s temblors. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.6.Italita

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. – AP </s> A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has rocked central Italy, sending already quake-damaged buildings crumbling after a week of tremors that have left thousands homeless.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or death.

Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being roused from bed by yesterday’s 7:40 am quake.

Nuns rushed out of their church in Norcia as the clock tower appeared about to crumble.

“We are definitely seeing some damage [already],” journalist Seema Gupta, reporting from Rome, told Al Jazeera.

“We are seeing images of smoke covered over buildings that have crumbled to the ground,” she added. “Many are centuries-old buildings not built to modern standards.”

The quake measured 6.6 according to the US Geological Survey and was centred close to the Umbrian town of Norcia, where the historic Basilica of St. Benedict was badly damaged.

The Survey also said the quake was centred 132 km northeast of Rome and 68 km east of Perugia, near the epicentre of last week’s trembols.

It reportedly had a depth of 1.5 km, a relatively shallow quake near the surface but in the norm for the quake-prone Apennine Mountain region.

The earthquake was the biggest since almost 300 people were killed in central Italy on August 24 by a quake that levelled several small towns.— Al Jazeera. </s> Italy earthquake: churches, chapels destroyed as magnitude-6.6 tremor hits medieval town

Updated

An earthquake in Italy on Sunday struck the medieval walled town of Norcia as nuns, monks and priests were heading to morning prayer services, giving them just enough time to flee as the walls around them plunged to the ground.

Key points: Magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits central region of Italy causing extensive damage

Churches, monasteries and chapels in the region of Norcia were destroyed

Earlier tremors had prompted people to flee their homes, preventing any deaths when the major quake struck

The quake hit the same central regions that have been rocked by repeated tremors over the past two months.

The magnitude-6.6 earthquake caused extensive damage but no fatalities, despite registering much higher than the earthquake which stuck on August 24 and killed almost 300 people.

Weakened by repeated powerful jolts in recent weeks, many of Norcia's churches, monasteries and chapels were wrecked.

"We thought it was the end of everything," said 74-year-old Sister Maria Raffaella Buoso after being evacuated from the Monastery of the Poor Clares of Santa Maria della Pace.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake was centred 68 kilometres east-southeast of Perugia at a depth of 1.5 kilometres.

Geoscience Australia seismologist Hugh Glanville told the ABC that at that depth, the earthquake was very shallow and had the potential to cause anything nearby to be catastrophically damaged.

"If it's a deep earthquake at 10, 20 or even 30 kilometres, the seismic waves have to travel through more earth before they reach the surface, but at such a shallow depth there is a lot less to dampen the waves effect on the buildings," he said.

Italy's history of earthquakes Oct. 31, 2002 — Earthquake measuring 5.9 hits Campobasso, south-central Italy, killing 30 people, most of them children, in San Giuliano di Puglia.

April 6, 2009 — Earthquake measuring 6.3 strikes the Abruzzo region east of Rome. It kills more than 300 people and devastates the 13th century city of L'Aquila.

May 29, 2012 — 17 people killed, 350 injured in a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the area around Modena in northern Italy, 10 days after a tremor killed 10 in the same area.

Aug 24, 2016 — 297 people killed when a 6.2 magnitude quake hits the central hilltown of Amatrice and nearby towns and villages.

That there were no reports of fatalities was largely due to the fact that thousands had left their homes after the earlier temblors.

Some 20 people suffered minor injuries.

Premier Matteo Renzi pledged that wrecked homes, churches and businesses would rise again, saying they were part of Italy's national identity.

"We will rebuild everything," Mr Renzi said.

"We are dealing with marvellous territories, territories of beauty."

Department head Fabrizio Curcio said the agency was using helicopters to tend to the injured and assess damage.

'It's as if the whole city fell down'

Norcia's historic Basilica of St Benedict was among the buildings destroyed.

The Monks of Norcia tweeted images of the damage and said people were trapped in the town's main square, with fears nearby buildings might collapse.

"Everyone has been suspended in a never-ending state of fear and stress. They are at their wits end," Bishop Renato Boccardo of Norcia said.

"It's as if the whole city fell down," Norcia city assessor Guiseppina Perla told the ANSA news agency.

The destruction of the Norcia basilica is the single most significant loss of Italy's artistic heritage in an earthquake since a tremor in 1997 caused the collapse of the ceiling of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi.

The basilica and monastery complex dates to the 13th century, although shrines to St Benedict and his sister had been built there since the 8th century.

During his Sunday blessing Pope Francis offered his prayers to those affected.

"I'm praying for the injured and the families who have suffered the most damage, as well as for rescue and first-aid workers."

Priests advised to hold outdoor mass

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Umbria, advised parish priests not to hold mass inside churches.

He told priests in the Umbria region to hold mass outdoors, the ANSA news agency said.

The quake was felt as far north as Bolzano, near the border with Austria and as far south as the Puglia region at the southern tip of the Italian peninsula and was felt strongly in the capital Rome.

Marco Rinaldi, Mayor of quake-hit Ussita, north of Norcia, said a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the crumbled buildings.

"It's a disaster, a disaster," he told the ANSA news agency.

"I was sleeping in the car and I saw hell."

The town of Arquata del Tronto, east of Norcia, which was devastated by earthquakes two months ago that killed nearly 300 people and levelled several small towns, suffered fresh damage.

"Everything came down," Mayor Aleandro Petrucci said.

Further south in Amatrice, the St Augustine church, which had survived August's quake, crumbled.

The earthquake followed a series of tremors to strike the country in the past five days.

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck east of the city on Wednesday, the second of the evening whose tremors were felt as far away as the capital Rome.

Mr Curcio said 1,300 people displaced by Wednesday's quakes had been evacuated to the coast in recent days.

ABC/wires

Topics: disasters-and-accidents, earthquake, italy

First posted </s> Two powerful earthquakes struck central Italy on Wednesday, causing fear among residents still rattled by a deadly tremor in August.



An 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Marche region almost two hours after a 5.4-magnitude quake damaged buildings and cut power lines across the area.

There have been no reports of casualties so far.

The latest earthquake occurred 71 km east of Perugia, with United States Geological Survey reporting it as a 6.0-magnitude temblor, and Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology saying it was 5.9-magnitude.

The first earthquake was detected at 7:11pm local time, about 66km to the southeast of Perugia, striking a mountainous part of the Marche region and lasting several seconds.The exact epicenter of the tremblor remains unclear, but it was relatively shallow, at about 9km below ground.

Within an hour of the first earthquake, there was a series of small but noticeable aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 2.5 to 2.8.

“We’re in the square, all the lights are out, we can’t see, we’re counting each other to see who’s here, we still don’t know how bad the situation is,” Mauro Falcucci, mayor of Castelsantangelo sul Nera, the small commune closest to the epicenter, told Sky News by phone. “The situation is delicate. It is important to remain calm.”

The official said that the emergency is exacerbated by a downpour, and intermittent problems with mobile phone communication.

“It was a very strong, apocalyptic earthquake – people were screaming in the street, and now the lights are cut off,” said Marco Rinaldi, the mayor of Ussita, a community of 400 that was also affected by the initial earthquake.

A video posted by a Huffington Post journalist shows rubble strewn through the streets of Visso, a commune less than 10 km from the epicenter.

The Civil Protection agency, the centralized service which is receiving infromation from dozens of tiny settlements scattered across the area, say that older buildings have been damaged, or collapsed entirely, but that no injuries have been reported.

Eyewitnesses also reported a powerful tremor in the capital on the western side of the country, more than 150 km away, saying that centuries-old buildings were shaking.

Wednesday’s quakes occurred less than 70km to the north of Amatrice, a village in the seismically unstable central Apennines region that was hit by a series of earthquakes in August, resulting in nearly 300 deaths. The strongest impact there was a 6.2 earthquake on August 24, followed by more than a dozen aftershocks over the next several days.

“This earthquake is likely the activation of a new faultline, connected to August’s calamity. But we need to get closer to the epicenter, before drawing conclusions,” said Paul Messina, for the Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering of the Italian National Research Council. </s> Campi, Italy (CNN) No deaths were reported Thursday in a part of central Italy rocked hours earlier by two powerful quakes, but the destruction of historic buildings led people to count the damage in the loss of their precious cultural heritage.

As dawn broke in the area, about 50 miles north of where a deadly quake killed nearly 300 people in August , rescuers were fearful of mudslides and wary about the risk of bringing heavy equipment up narrow roads linking the towns, villages and hamlets in this hilly region of the country.

The two temblors were followed by small aftershocks and one larger aftershock, measuring magnitude 4.3, which struck at 8:21 a.m. (2:21 a.m. ET) Thursday. There were no immediate reports of further damage resulting from that aftershock.

The second of the two quakes Wednesday -- with a magnitude 6.1 -- was 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) north of Visso and 58 kilometers (36 miles) from Perugia, the US Geological Survey reported.

A few hours earlier, a magnitude 5.5 quake struck the same region. The epicenter was about 9 kilometers away, south-southwest of Visso. That quake hit at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) between Perugia and Macerata, according to ANSA.

Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes A woman walks among debris at the Church of St. Antony, dating from the 14th century, in the town of Visso on Thursday, October 27, after a pair of earthquakes rocked central Italy. A magnitude 5.5 quake struck Wednesday, October 26, followed hours later by a magnitude 6.1 temblor. No deaths were reported, but historic buildings were damaged in the region where a powerful quake killed nearly 300 people in August. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes Visso was among the more heavily damaged towns, including this post office on October 27. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes Visso residents carry some of their belongings in the aftermath on October 27. Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes A house lies in ruins in Visso on October 27. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes Firefighters inspect damage in Visso on October 27. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes People wander around Visso on October 27 after the quake destroyed part of their neighborhood. Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes A child sleeps in a secured area after earthquakes rocked Visso on October 26. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes The Church of San Sebastiano stands amid damaged houses in Castelsantangelo sul Nera on October 26. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes Rescuers and residents inspect earthquake damage in Visso. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes The epicenter of the first earthquake was about nine kilometers (five miles) south-southwest of Visso. Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes A Halloween dummy rests on a wall in front of earthquake damage in Visso. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Central Italy shaken by 2 earthquakes Residents prepare to spend the night in makeshift shelters in Visso. Hide Caption 12 of 12

Italy's Civil Protection Agency said one person injured in Visso was taken to a hospital in Camerino, nearly 20 miles away, while dozens of others required medical attention in health facilities in the area.

The agency said a fire department helicopter would take off as soon as weather conditions allowed to rescue five people stranded overnight because of a landslide in Acquasanta.

CNN Map

There was significant damage to some buildings in Visso and another town, Campi, where the tremors destroyed the historic church, San Salvatore -- the first severely damaged the 15th-century structure, and the second finished it off.

There were constant, small aftershocks throughout Thursday morning in Campi.

Residents, some with tears in their eyes, came to see what remained of San Salvatore, not only a part of the area's cultural heritage but also of significance as the scene of baptisms, weddings and funerals.

One of the quakes leaves a house destroyed Thursday in the central Italian town of Visso.

Civil Protection Agency officials assisted one elderly man carrying a basket of flowers he wanted to leave at the cemetery.

Earlier, streetlights, likely powered by generators, remained on in Campi, but houses were dark. In many small towns, in the pre-dawn hours, there was little light, further hampering rescue efforts.

A post office is damaged in Visso following the quakes.

Hundreds of people slept in their cars in Campi, with blankets covering the windows. Cars were parked everywhere -- streets, gas stations, parking lots. Some residents had their dogs with them.

Local media said one man had suffered a heart attack.

Residents expressed worry that another, bigger tremor might cause even more damage.

The US Geological Survey said both of Wednesday's earthquakes were shallow.

The main square and church in nearby Norcia, a couple of miles to the south, were badly damaged, but the church was still standing.

Residents carry some of their belongings after part of Visso was destroyed.

Reminders of August quake

Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the Italian branch of the Red Cross, told CNN that many people left their homes after the first shock and went outside when the second earthquake hit about two hours later.

A child sleeps Wednesday in a secured area of Visso after the earthquakes.

Visso is about 110 miles northeast of Rome and 50 miles north of Amatrice, the small town that lost about 270 residents when a magnitude 6.2 quake hit on August 24. Another 20 people were killed in nearby towns.

Incredible aftershock or earthquake felt in Testaccio in Rome. Wow. — Barbie Latza Nadeau (@BLNadeau) October 26, 2016

The impact from Wednesday's quakes was even felt in Rome.

Video recorded by CNN affiliate Rai television showed a road to Visso that was largely blocked by a massive boulder. Cars were having to drive carefully around it.

Stone buildings in the town also were heavily damaged.

Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake An emergency responder passes by the rubble of the building in Amatrice where Roberto Partenza and his family lived before the earthquake struck in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday, August 24. Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake Emergency crews huddle near the iconic Amatrice clock tower still standing amid the rubble. The frozen hands of the clock rest at the time of the earthquake: 3:36 a.m. local time. Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake The destroyed interior of a home is seen in Amatrice. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake The destroyed convent of Amatrice is visible from the Italian Red Cross field headquarters in Amatrice. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake A K-9 rescue crew regroups outside of the red zone in Amatrice. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake Three days on, various emergency response groups congregate in an open area in Amatrice. Rescuers were initially hindered by the lack of access to the mountain town. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake An camp for emergency volunteers is erected in a park in Amatrice. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake Rescuers congregate in the shade near a temporary camp under construction for residents displaced by the earthquake in Amatrice. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake A view of the tent camp set up by the Civil Protection Agency in the Abruzzo region as temporary housing for displaced residents from the mountain commune of Accumoli. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake AnnaMaria Volpetti, 52, stands at the entrance of the tent where she and her family have sought refuge after their ancestral holiday home was ruined in Accumoli. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake The gated doorframe of a home is the only part of it that remains standing. Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake Emergency personnel survey a cordoned-off area in the center of Amatrice. Much of the town is now inaccessible to everyone but authorities. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake Cars caked in a layer of thick debris dust are parked in central Amatrice. Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake A poster for the 50th anniversary of Amatrice's famous pasta festival, set to take place the weekend following the earthquake, remains on the perimeter of a park now occupied by emergency response volunteers. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Shattered vistas from Italy's August earthquake A neat fracture line in the pavement is a telling sign of the earth's violent movement below the streets of Amatrice. Hide Caption 15 of 15

Della Longa said buildings that fell in the Amatrice area have been unoccupied since the August quake. The area remains off-limits. People displaced by that quake have been forced to move once again. </s> Italy has been rocked by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake, hitting the central Italian region already reeling from a series of large quakes.

The epicentre of the quake, according to initial reports, was about 68km south-west of Perugia and close to the town of Norcia, which had been hit by two successive quakes on Wednesday night that caused extensive damage.

There were no initial reports of fatalities but the head of the civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, said “a dozen” people were injured, with one person described as being in a serious condition.

Emergency services pulled out three people alive from the rubble in the town of Tolentino in Marche.

While there was relief that the area seemed to have been spared mass causalities - in large part because affected areas had already been abandoned after the previous quake - the damage wreaked on ancient structures across the hilly region of Marche and Umbria underscored that the landscape of this historic region would never be the same again.

The quake, which was felt in Rome and Naples, levelled historic structures that had already sustained major damage, including a tower and St Augustine church in Amatrice - the town devastated by a major earthquake in August that killed about 300 people.

In Norcia, a town in Umbria, the basilica of San Benedetto was destroyed, as was the town’s cathedral, where only remnants of the church’s facade still stood.

On Sunday morning, live television images showed firefighters in Norcia’s main square helping people running down small alleyways seeking safety. They included many monks and nuns in their habits from a nearby monastery.

Authorities were also reporting extensive damage in other towns of the region. Apart from Rome and Naples, tremors were also felt in neighbouring countries including Slovenia and Croatia.

“It all came down. Now there is no more town,” said the mayor of Arquata del Tronto, Aleandro Petrucci. There had already been “red zones” in place, abandoned after the previous quakes. “The few people who remained have gone out to the streets and are embracing. Now we’re going around to see what happened,” he said.

Cesare Spuri, the head of civil protection in Marche, said: “There are collapses everywhere. We report collapses in Muccia, Tolentino and in the areas surrounding Macerata. We’re trying to establish if people are underneath the rubble. There was also a strong shock in Ancona.”

“Everything’s collapsed. I see plumes of smoke, it’s a disaster,” said Marco Rinaldi, the mayor of Ussita, a town in the Marche region that was among the worst hit in a 6.1-magnitude quake that struck Italy on Wednesday night.

In Rome, the quake caused far more concern than Wednesday’s as it was felt much more strongly and for a longer period. The city’s metro was shut down for safety checks in case of damage.

“I was woken up by the earthquake,” Gianpaolo Giovannelli, who lives in the Flaminio area of Rome, told the Guardian. “The apartment started to shake. We feel them here in Rome, but we never get used to them so each time we feel fear.”

Assia Staffoli, a mother of two from Rome, said her husband put their six-year-old daughter under the table when they felt the earthquake, which caused their bedrooms, on a mezzanine level, to shake badly.

“That’s what you’re told to do when there’s an earthquake, go under the table,” Ms Staffoli said. “I was feeding my son [aged seven months] when it happened. We then quickly left the apartment.” </s> ROME — A 5.4-magnitude earthquake rattled central Italy on Wednesday, knocking out power, closing a major highway and sending panicked residents into the streets just two months after a powerful temblor killed nearly 300 people.

There were scattered reports of damage to buildings, including with pieces of masonry crumbling down, but no immediate reports of victims, said Ornella De Luca, a spokeswoman for Italy's civil protection agency.

"We're without power, waiting for emergency crews," said the mayor of Castel Santangelo Sul Nera, a tiny town just north of some of the hard-hit areas of the Aug. 24 quake. Speaking to Sky TG24, he said: "We can't see anything. It's tough. Really tough."

He said some buildings had collapsed, but that there were no immediate reports of injuries. He added that darkness and a downpour were impeding a full accounting.

Italy's National Vulcanology Center said the quake struck at 7:10 p.m. local time (1710 GMT) with an epicenter at Macerata, near Perugia in the quake-prone Apennine Mountain chain. The U.S. Geological Survey put the epicenter near Visso and said it had a depth of some 10 kilometers.

Experts say even relatively modest quakes that have shallow depths can cause significant damage because the seismic waves are closer to the surface. But seismologist Gianluca Valensise said a 10-kilometer depth is within the norm for an Apennine temblor.

The Aug. 24 quake destroyed the hilltop village of Amatrice and other nearby towns and had a depth of about 10 kilometers (six miles).

"There's a lot of fear, but it would seem, fortunately, from the first reports no problems for people," said the deputy mayor of Norcia, Pietro Luigi Altavilla.

Wednesday's quake was felt from Perugia in Umbria to the capital Rome to the central Italian town of L'Aquila, which was struck by a deadly quake in 2009. The mayor of L'Aquila, however, said there was no immediate report of damage.

A section of a major state highway north of Rome, the Salaria, was closed near Arquata del Tronto because of a quake-induced landslide, said De Luca.

The mayor of Arquata del Tronco, Aleandro Petrucci, said the quake seemed stronger than the August temblor, which devastated parts of his town. But he said there were no reports of injuries to date and that the zone hardest hit by the last quake remained uninhabitable.

"We don't worry because there is no one in the red zone, if something fell, walls fell," he said.

In Rome, some 230 kilometers (145 miles) southwest from the epicenter, centuries-old palazzi shook and officials at the Foreign Ministry evacuated the building.

The quake was actually an aftershock of the magnitude 6.2 earthquake from two months ago. Because it was so close to the surface, it has the potential to cause more shaking and more damage, "coupled with infrastructure that's vulnerable to shaking," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle.

"They have a lot of old buildings that weren't constructed at a time with modern seismic codes," he said.

Given the size, depth and location of the quake, the USGS estimates that about 12 million people likely felt at least weak shaking.

This quake is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of the original shock, which puts it on the northern edge of the aftershock sequence and two months is normal for aftershocks, Earle said. The August 6.2 quake was five times bigger than Wednesday's and was 11 times stronger based on energy released.

Seismologists initially thought this aftershock was magnitude 5.4 but the USGS upgraded it to 5.5 when they checked its waves and that estimate may still change, Earle said.

AP writer Colleen Barry contributed from Milan and AP science writer Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington.
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in Central Italy 68 kilometres east southeast of Perugia. Many buildings are reported as having been destroyed.