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ROME -- Part of a university dormitory, a church tower, and several houses collapsed in a strong earthquake that hit central Italy early this morning. There were several reports of fatalities, including four children in the city of l'Aquila and an adult and a child in a nearby village.
There was no immediate word on whether anyone was inside the dormitory in l'Aquila, about 60 miles east of Rome. The quake registered 6.3 on the Richter scale and struck shortly after 3:30 a.m.
Television pictures showed rubble on several streets in l'Aquila and at least one modern house with a collapsed roof. The pictures also showed the rubble from a collapsed bell tower.
Italy's Civil Protection Agency confirmed the quake caused deaths without giving a number. State television RAI said an elderly woman and a child had been killed in a village east of Rome; ANSA news agency said four children were killed in l'Aquila.
Damage was reported in several of these outlying towns and villages in the mountainous Abruzzo region.
About 15,000 people were without power in the province of l'Aquila, according to ANSA news agency.
The quake was felt in much of central Italy, including Rome. People ran into the streets in the capital after the quake woke them, the ANSA news agency said.
The quake was the latest in a series of jolts that struck the area over the past two days.
Italy is north of a zone where the African and Eurasian plates meet. A magnitude 5.9 earthquake near Foggia in 2002, to the southeast of the epicenter of today's quake, killed 29 people.
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