Residents of some cities evacuated from their homes due to series of tremors in Italy.
Hundreds of Italians were forced to stay in emergency shelters on Thursday after fleeing their homes due to series of strong quakes in the region.
The tremors struck Wednesday an area northeast of the capital Rome near Amatrice. This is the same town flattened by a 6.0-6.2 quake which killed almost 300 people and injured hundreds more in August this year.
The first 5.5 magnitude quake Wednesday forced people to go out of their residences, and the second, more destructive, 6.1 magnitude one struck two hours later.
In both cases the epicenter of the tremor was near the village of Visso in the central Marche region.
The quakes were felt in the capital Rome, where residents also ran into the streets. The second was felt as far away as Venice in the far north, and Naples, south of the capital.
Italian television channels broadcast images showing collapsed buildings and people standing dazed in front of their ruined houses.
After a night of heavy rain, rescuers workers tried to assess the full extent of the latest disaster in central Italy, which toppled buildings and injured dozens of people.
A series of aftershocks kept on rattling the area through the night after two quakes with a magnitude of 5.5 and 6.1 struck on Wednesday evening and sent people fleeing their houses in terror.
“Many houses have collapsed. Our town is finished,” Marco Rinaldi, mayor of the mountain town of Ussita, said.
“The second quake was a long, terrible one.”
“I’ve felt a lot of earthquakes but that was the strongest I’ve ever felt. Fortunately everyone had already left their homes after the first quake so I don’t think anyone was hurt,” Rinaldi said.
According to the Italian authorities, one man was reported to have died of a heart attack, and dozens of people were injured.
Civil protection chief Fabrizio Curcio told a news conference that several dozen people were treated for light injuries or shock, but no serious injuries had been reported.
“Ultimately, the situation is not as catastrophic as might have been expected” given the strength of the tremors,” Curcio said.