At least 120 people have
been killed and 368 injured in an earthquake that hit a mountainous area of
central Italy, PM Matteo Renzi has said.
BBC
News report continues:
The
magnitude-6.2 quake struck at 03:36 (01:36 GMT), 100km (65 miles) north-east of
Rome, not far from Perugia.
Eighty-six
of the dead were in the historic town of Amatrice, where the mayor said
three-quarters of the town was destroyed, and in nearby Accumoli.
Many
people are still believed to be buried under rubble.
Rescue
teams are using heavy lifting equipment and their bare hands as they continue
to search for survivors after nightfall.
There
were cheers in the village of Pescara del Tronto when an eight-year-old girl
was pulled alive from the rubble after being trapped for 17 hours.
"This
is not a final toll," Mr Renzi warned as he gave the latest figures on a
visit to the area.
He
had earlier paid tribute to the volunteers and civil defence officials who had
rushed to the scene in the middle of the night and used their bare hands to dig
for survivors.
He
promised "no family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind".
The
tremor was felt across Italy, from Bologna in the north to Naples in the south.
There have been dozens of aftershocks.
Hardest
hit were the small towns and villages in the mountainous area where the regions
of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche meet.
As well as the 86 dead in two towns of Amatrice and Accumoli, there are 34 people known to have been killed in Le Marche province, including in the neighbouring villages of Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto.
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