A powerful earthquake that rocked central Italy on Wednesday left 73 people dead and the total is likely to rise, the country’s civil protection unit said in the first official death toll.
“There are still so many people under masonry, so many missing,” said Immacolata Postiglione, the head of the unit’s emergency department.
Deaths were reported in three villages in a mountainous area straddling the regions of Lazio and Marche: Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto.
At least 10 people died in Pescara, a hamlet that is part of the bigger village of Arquata del Tronto, according to civil protection officers cited by the ANSA news agency.
Six bodies were recovered at Amatrice, according to the president of the Lazio region, and two at Accumoli, according to the town’s mayor.
A 5.5 magnitude aftershock hit the same region an hour after the initial quake.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s spokesman said on Twitter that the government was in touch with the civil protection agency and following the situation closely.
The last major earthquake to hit Italy struck the central city of L’Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people. (AFP)
