The provisional death toll from
Wednesday's earthquake in central Italy has risen to 247, the
civil protection agency said Thursday.
Some 264 others were injured and have been taken to
hospital.
The devastating quake, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale,
struck a mountainous area on the borders of Lazio, Umbria and
Marche just after 03:30 Wednesday, flattening towns and
villages.
Some 190 of the dead were said to be in Rieti province in
Lazio and 57 in the province of Ascoli Piceno in Marche.
Civil Protection chief Fabrizio Curcio said the number of
victims is set to rise and that the search for those missing is
continuing even though it is impossible to say how many people
were in the affected areas because of the presence of many
tourists and people returning to their old homes for the summer
break.
The first episodes of looting were reported in some places.
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