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Police Respond to Reports of Gunfire, Blast at American University of Afghanistan

by Fazul Rahim

Rescue crews in central Italy raced to pull residents buried beneath rubble after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked a string of small towns early Wednesday, killing at least 73 people.

Italy's defense ministry mobilized the army in search of survivors, using bare hands and heavy equipment to sift through the waste and set people free. Emergency units set up makeshift hospitals and tent cities to care for the injured — many left dazed by the scenes of destruction and desperate to find loved ones feared among the dead.

The temblor hit at 3:36 a.m. local time near Norcia, 50 miles southeast of Perugia, and was felt more than 100 miles away in Rome.

Several large aftershocks followed amid dramatic scenes of rescue and cries for help. People from some homes were taken out alive, while officials counted the dead in others.

A man is rescued alive from the rubble in in Amatrice. REMO CASILLI / Reuters

"We came out to the piazza, and it looked like 'Dante's Inferno,'" Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting the damaged town of Illica, told The Associated Press. "People crying for help, help."

As dawn broke, stunned locals picked through ruins in the worst-affected towns of Accumoli and Amatrice.

The center of Amatrice was devastated, with entire palazzos razed to the ground. Aerial images from the fire department showed whole streets flattened. The town was set to host a food festival later this week, and was already anticipating tourists flooding into the area.

"There are people under the rubble," Amatrice's mayor, Sergio Pirozzi, told state-run broadcaster RAI. "The town isn't here anymore."

Aftershocks were still occurring in the town as late as 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET). Over 40 were felt throughout the region.

PHOTOS: Crews Rescue Burried Survivors After Italy Earthquake

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Italians "show their best side in difficult moments," telling reporters: "We must continue to work and to dig through the debris in order to save human lives and give hope to all those involved in the area."

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella described the tragedy as a "moment of pain" for the country, while Pope Francis led pilgrims in prayer, then tweeted of his "sorrow" about the disaster. The Vatican sent a six-man team from its fire squad to assist in the rescue operations.

"Hearing the mayor of Amatrice say that the town no longer exists, and learning that there are children among the dead, I am deeply saddened," the pope said in remarks at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

At least 73 people have been confirmed dead, Italy's civil protection agency said at a news briefing Wednesday afternoon. About 50 of them were in Amatrice alone, a police officer told NBC News.

Civil protection agency spokeswoman Francesca Maffini said residents in Amatrice were "distraught" and that schools were being used as makeshift shelters for the many displaced.

"We flew to Amatrice from Rome in a helicopter so I saw it from the air," she told NBC News. "There are a lot of historical buildings that are destroyed. It's really bad."

Residents, rescuers and even priests used shovels and their hands to dig out survivors in the devastated town. A firefighter said as many as 70 people were buried in the ruins.

The town's hospital was badly damaged and patients were moved into the streets.

Maffini added that at least 10 were killed in the town of Arquata.

The mayor of Accumoli said at least seven had died there, and rescue crews were frantically searching for four others after three people were found alive under the debris.

Authorities said the quake was similar in scale to the devastating 2009 temblor in nearby L'Aquila that killed more than 300 people, urging Italians to give blood and donate blankets, medicine and water.

The epicenter was about five miles from Norcia in central Italy, but tremors were felt as far away as the country's coasts. NBC News

Roads were blocked in several areas of the mountainous hamlets, severely hampering efforts to assess the damage and deploy rescue operations. A key road bridge over the Castellano River leading to Amatrice was declared unsafe.

"We need chain saws, shears to cut iron bars, and jacks to remove beams: everything, we need everything," one civil protection worker Andrea Gentili told the AP.

Infrastructure minister Graziano Del Rio and Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Department, were on their way to reach the affected areas, the government said.

Curcio told a news conference that the region is popular with visitors escaping the August heat of Rome, with more residents than at other times of the year.

A man is pulled out of the rubble following an earthquake in Amatrice, Italy on Wednesday. Massimo Percossi / AP

Facebook activated its for the affected area Wednesday morning and the U.S. State Department urged all American citizens in the region to check in with friends and family to let them know they were safe.

Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.

Wednesday's quake occurred along a fault in the central Apennine Mountains, which span Italy from the Gulf of Taranto in the south to the southern edge of the Po River basin in the north, the USGS said.

Vacationing New Yorker Patrick Defelice told NBC News he and his wife were woken at 3:30 a.m. "out of dead sleep" in Assisi, near Perugia.

"The building was shaking pretty good," the 55-year-old said.

Contributors Kurt Chirbas, Alex Johnson, The Associated Press and Reuters First Published Aug 23 2016, 10:55 pm ET

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