AMATRICE (Italy) — A strong earthquake struck a mountainous stretch of central Italy early on Wednesday, killing at least 73 people, trapping scores under debris and setting off tremors that awakened residents in Rome, more than 140km to the southwest.

The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 3.36 am, about 6.5km 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 am. 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.

Towns across three regions — Umbria, Lazio and Marche — were devastated by the quake, which could be felt as far away as Bologna in the north and Naples in the south. Fifty-three people were killed in just two towns, Amatrice and Accumoli, both in Lazio, and 20 others in Marche, where the village of Arquata del Tronto and the hamlet of Pescara del Tronto suffered severe damage. At least 100 people were injured, Ms Immacolata Postiglione, the head of the emergency unit for the Civil Protection Agency, said.

“The number of missing people is undefined at the moment,” she said.

The mayor of Amatrice, Mr Sergio Pirozzi, said “half the town no longer exists”, adding that rescue teams were digging through the rubble, “hoping that most people were alive”. The historic centre of the town, with buildings dating to the Middle Ages, was destroyed. “The problem is removing people from under the rubble,” he said. Asked how many people he thought were still trapped or dead underneath debris, he said, “Many, many.”

Mr Pirozzi added that Amatrice had been cut off because of damage to roads and a bridge, and in a live television broadcast, he appealed for assistance. The village of Pescara del Tronto was all but destroyed.

“When I arrived at the break of day, I saw a destroyed village, screams, death,” Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole of Ascoli Piceno, who visited the village, told Vatican Radio. He said he had blessed “the bodies of two children buried under the rubble”.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in brief remarks from Rome, said he would head toward the epicentre of the quake later in the day. He thanked rescue workers and volunteers who had dug through debris, some with their bare hands, to reach trapped people, and he said the nation had rallied to help. “No family, no city, no hamlet will be left alone,” he said. THE NEW YORK TIMES