Powerful Earthquake in Italy Kills More Than 150 and Shatters Towns
A strong earthquake struck a mountainous stretch of central Italy early Wednesday, killing at least 159 people, trapping scores under debris and setting off tremors that awakened residents in Rome, nearly 100 miles to the southwest.
The earthquake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, struck at 3:36 a.m., about 6.5 miles southeast of the town of Norcia in the Umbria region, followed by about 200 aftershocks over the next several hours, including a 5.5-magnitude tremor at 4:33 a.m.
The authorities said the quake was comparable in intensity to one in 2009 in the Abruzzo region of central Italy that killed more than 300 people....