Summary 2500 people killed in earthquake
Answers
At least 73 people have died and many more are missing after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a string of hill towns and villages across central Italy. It struck at 3.36am when most people in the hardest-hit towns of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto were asleep.
Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, is to visit the worst-hit areas later on Wednesday. In a TV address he said the priority was to get survivors out of the rubblewe have to save the people there.”
Stefano Petrucci, THE mayor of nearby Accumoli, said about 2,500 people were left homeless in the local community, made up of 17 hamlets.
The US Geological Survey said it was the largest earthquake in Italy since April 2009 when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit L’Aquila, killing at least 295 people and injuring more than 1,000. It said the epicentre of the Wednesday earthquake was about two miles (4km) north-east of Norcia and 40km north of Amatrice.
France, Germany and the EU have offered their assistance. The French president, François Hollande, said France would provide “all the help that might be necessary” after a “terrible tragedy”, while the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed “the deep sympathy of the German people”.