Update, 3:15 p.m.: Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi now says the death toll is at “at least 120.”
Update, 11:55 a.m.: Updated accounts say that at least 73 people are now known to have died in today’s quakes.
Original post, 9:17 a.m.: At least 39 people have been killed in Central Italy by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake, followed by approximately 40 aftershocks, that began striking at 3:36 a.m. local time. The quakes lasted roughly three hours and were centered in a mountainous region about 100 miles northeast of Rome; buildings in a number of towns and villages have been reduced to rubble, and the death toll is expected to rise.*
Here’s a photo from the town of Amatrice:
Ciro Luca/Reuters
Another from Pescara del Tronto:
Remo Casilli/Reuters
We’ll update this post as information becomes available.
*Correction, Aug. 24, 2016: This post originally misstated the location of the quakes in relation to Rome. The region affected is about 100 miles northeast of the Italian capital, not northwest.
