Twenty people are believed to have been killed in an earthquake that hit Central Italy this morning. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit Amatrice, and half of the city is gone due to the impact of the disaster.
The quake hit the town around 03:36 (01:36 GMT), 100km (65 miles) northeast of Rome, at a shallow depth of 10km, and at the time of writing, 21 people including children have reported to have died and many other missing.
The mayor of Accumoli,Stefano Petrucci said;
Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life. One person was pulled out of the rubble during the night,Then there is a family of four under a collapsed house and sadly there are two small children among them
The earthquake also caused damage to surrounding regions - Umbria, Lazio and Marche.
The damage was severe because the epicentre was at a relatively shallow 4 km below the surface of the earth.