New quake sows terror in Italy

Italy's most powerful earthquake in 36 years struck a new blow to the country's seismically vulnerable heart yesterday, terrifying residents for the third time in nine weeks and flattening a revered 600-year-old church.

The national civil protection agency said there had been extensive damage to many historic buildings but no fatalities had been registered some five hours after the quake.

The shallow quake struck at 7:40am near the small mountain town of Norcia, unleashing a shock felt in the capital Rome, where the metro was partially shut down, and even in Venice, 300 kilometres away. It measured 6.6 on the so-called moment magnitude scale, according to US geologists, while Italian monitors estimated it at 6.5.

Firefighters and rescuers carry a woman on a wheelchair. Photo: AFP

t was Italy's biggest quake since a 6.9-magnitude one struck the south of the country in 1980, leaving 3,000 people dead.

Norcia's 14th-century Basilica of Saint Benedict, built on the reputed birthplace of the Catholic saint, was reduced to rubble. The church is looked after by an international community of Benedictine monks based in two local monasteries which attract some 50,000 pilgrims every year.

The quake's epicentre was located at a very shallow depth of one kilometre (just over half a mile), six kilometres north of Norcia, according to the US Geological Survey.

It came four days after quakes of 5.5 and 6.1 magnitude hit the same area and nine weeks after nearly 300 people died in an August 24 quake that devastated the tourist town of Amatrice at the peak of the holiday season.