Towns and villages already battered by the 6.2 quake last August have suffered further significant damage, according to local officials, as it emerged that Sunday’s quake was the strongest to hit the region since a 6.9 magnitude quake in southern Italy in 1980 that killed 2,735 people.

“This morning’s quake has hit the few things that were left standing. We will have to start from scratch,” Michele Franchi, the deputy mayor of Arquata del Tronto, told Rai television.

Matteo Renzi has pledged to “rebuild everything” after the quake and has expresses compassion for the people affected. His cabinet will meet tomorrow to discuss financial measures.

He says the money will be found to rebuild churches, houses and businesses.

Head of Civil Protection dept Fabrizio Curcio has confirmed at a 12:20pm (local time) press conference that there are no deaths however around 20 have been injured.  Viability of the towns “seriously compromised”.

Pope Francis expressed his closeness to quake victims at this morning’s Angelus at St Peter’s Square which garnered applause from crowds at Vatican.

“I am praying for the injured and the families that have suffered major damage and also the personnel engaged in rescues and assistance, ” he said.

Italian president Sergio Mattarella has expressed “solidarity and support” for the victims.

A Catholic Church leader in one of the two regions where another earthquake has caused buildings to collapse is advising parish priests to avoid holding Mass inside churches.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti told priests in the Umbria region to hold Mass outdoors following the Sunday morning earthquake as well as on All Saint’s Day on Tuesday, a holiday on which Catholic’s remember the dead.

The news agency ANSA said Bassetti, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Umbria, made the decision after consulting with the head of the region.

The earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has damaged historic churches in the town of Norcia, including the 14th century St. Benedict cathedral in one of the city’s main piazza.

The earthquake in central Italy has damaged the 4th century church in Rome commonly known as ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’.

ANSA news agency reported that cornices fell and cracks appeared in the walls after the quake struck central Italy and shook many buildings in the capital.

A beam that supported a large candelabra had also become detached causing more damage.

The report said firefighters and police were called to the basilica, one of the most popular for Christian pilgrims after the quake.

The Basilica is one of Rome’s four ancient, Papal, major basilicas, along with the Basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peter’s, and St. Mary Major.

The Basilica was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I over the burial place of St. Paul, where it was said that, after the Apostle’s execution, his followers erected a memorial, called a cella memoriae.

Rome officials also checking the Colosseum and Roman Forum for signs of cracks or quake damage.

The mayors are asking for help.. People are exhausted. They need solidarity from all Italians. Situation very serious.

The head of Italy’s civil protection agency says there are no immediate reports of deaths.

Fabrizio Curcio said some people suffered injuries as numerous buildings that had resisted previous temblors in August and last week collapsed. He did not provide details on the nature or extent of the injuries.

Curcio says the agency is using helicopters to tend to the injured and to assess damage.

He says 1,300 people displaced on Wednesday by a pair of powerful aftershocks to an August quake that killed nearly 300 had been evacuated to the coast in recent days and that the operation would continue.

Residents in parts of the capital ran out into the streets as the walls and floors of homes and buildings shook for several seconds, writes Josephine McKenna. The fire service received dozens of calls in the capital and the metro was stopped temporarily while officials checked the strength of the quake.

The mayor of quake-hit Ussita said a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the crumbled buildings.

“It’s a disaster, a disaster!” Mayor Marco Rinaldi told the ANSA news agency. “I was sleeping in the car and I saw hell.”

Another hard-hit city, Castelsantangelo sul Nera, also suffered new damage.

The quake was felt throughout the Italian peninsula, with reports as far north as Bolzano and as far south as Bari. Residents rushed into the streets in Rome, where ancient palazzi shook, swayed and lurched for a prolonged spell.

The head of the civil protection authority in the March region, Cesare Spuri, said there have been reports of buildings collapsing in many cities.

“We are trying to understand if people are under the rubble,” Spuri said.

In Norcia, nuns knelt in prayer and a firefighter appealed to a priest to help maintain calm among dozens of residents gathered there, including some in wheel chairs.

The church, which had withstood the August earthquake in August and last week’s aftershocks, still was standing, but television pictures showed piles of stone had accumulated at the bottom of one wall. One stone was thrown meters into the center of the piazza, illustrating the quake’s force.

“We have to keep people calm. Prayer can help. I don’t want people to go searching for family members,” the firefighter appealed as cameras from SKY TG24 filmed.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center put the magnitude at 6.6 or 6.5 with an epicenter 132 kilometers northeast of Rome and 67 kilometers east of Perugia, near the epicenter of last week’s temblors. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.6.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences put the magnitude at 6.5 and said it had a depth of 10 kilometers, a relatively shallow quake near the surface but in the norm for the quake-prone Apennine Mountain region.

http://twitter.com/BenyRaccah/status/792622268266471424/video/1

In Arquata del Tronto a small comune (municipality) in the Italian region of La Marche which had been devastated by the Aug. 24 earthquake that killed nearly 300 people, Mayor Aleandro Petrucci said, “There are no towns left.”

“Everything came down,” he said.

On the Monks  of Norcia website Father Benedict the Subprior had this to say:

Around 7:40 AM, a powerful earthquake struck close to Norcia. The monks are all safe, but our hearts go immediately to those affected, and the priests of the monastery are searching for any who may need the Last Rites.

The Basilica of St. Benedict, the historic church built atop the birthplace of St. Benedict, was flattened by this most recent quake. May this image serve to illustrate the power of this earthquake, and the urgency we monks feel to seek out those who need the Sacraments on this difficult day for Italy.

Relying, as ever, on your prayers and support

Note: If you want to help the rebuilding process, you can give to the monks by clicking here.

…as this map shows

A quake which hit the region on October 27 destroyed many buildings including the church of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia. At least 200 aftershocks followed the first of two big earthquakes to hit central Italy the previous evening, the National Institute of Geophysics (INGV).

The first 5.4 magnitude quake struck at 19:10 Italian time and was followed by an even bigger one, of magnitude 5.9, at 21:18 on 26 October.

Monks at the monastery of San Benedetto, an international Benedictine community in Norcia, posted an image of the Basilica destroyed by the earthquake.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/30/italy-earthquake-66-magnitude-quake-hits-centre-of-country-near/