Italy rocked by magnitude 6.6 earthquake, the strongest in 36 years

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 on Sunday rocked the same area of central and southern Italy hit by quake in August and a pair of aftershocks last week, sending already quake-damaged buildings crumbling after a week of temblors that have left thousands homeless. The earthquake was believed to be the strongest to strike the country since 1980. A 6.9-magnitude quake in southern Campania that year killed some 3,000 people and caused extensive damage. Some 20 people suffered injuries, most of them minor, investigators said. However, numerous buildings that had resisted the previous quakes collapsed. Crews were responding with helicopters as rockslides blocked many roads, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, told reporters.

Closest to the epicenter was the ancient city of Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, the father of monasticism, and famed for its Benedictine monastery. Witnesses said the 14th century St. Benedict Cathedral collapsed in the quake, with only the facade still standing.
"It seemed like a bomb exploded inside the house," the deputy mayor of Norcia, Pierluigi Altavilla, told Sky TG24.
Residents already rattled by a constant trembling of the earth rushed into piazzas and streets after being awoken by the 7:40 a.m. quake. Many people still had been sleeping in cars or evacuated to shelters or hotels in other areas after a pair of strong jolts on Wednesday. Curcio said 1,300 had been evacuated to the coast, and more would follow.