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OT: Let us all pray for the victims of the Earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Pray for mercy and compassion.

Developing story
msnbc.com news services
updated 12 minutes ago
L'AQUILA, Italy - A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings as residents slept early Monday, killing at least 91 people and trapping many more, officials said. Tens of thousands were homeless and at least 1,500 injured.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 70 miles northeast of Rome near the medieval city of L'Aquila.

"A few houses have remained standing, but just a few," Stefania Pezzopane, provincial president of L'Aquila, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The earthquake struck at 3:32 a.m. local time in a quake-prone Abruzzo region that has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April. The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.

An Italian Cabinet minister, Elio Vito, told lawmakers that 91 deaths have been confirmed.

Officials said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes.

L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said some 100,000 people were homeless. It was not clear if that estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.

As aftershocks rumbled through, slabs of walls, twisted steel supports, furniture and wire fences were strewn about the streets and a gray dust carpeted sidewalks, cars and residents.

A resident standing by an apartment block that was reduced to the height of an adult said: "This building was four stories high."

In another part of the city, residents tried to hush the wailing of grief to try to pinpoint the sound of a crying baby.