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 hilltop town of Camerino, some 60 kilometers from Ancona, suffered new building collapses but no reports of injuries. On Sunday morning, live television images showed firefighters in Norcia’s main square helping people running down small alleyways seeking safety. 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. 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. Some towns and smaller settlements were left isolated by landslides that blocked the roads, and the civil protection authority was responding with helicopters to help the injured, while also monitoring damage. “We are going through a really tough period,” he 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. 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. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center put the magnitude of Sunday's earthquake 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. “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.
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake occurs in Central Italy 68 kilometres east southeast of Perugia. Many buildings are reported as having been destroyed.