Number of victims in Italy grows

Three thousand people in northern Italy bedded down in tents or temporary accommodation on Sunday night after a strong earthquake in the early hours killed six people, injured scores more and toppled centuries-old churches and clock towers, the Guardian reports.

Aftershocks in the Emilia-Romagna region continued to bring down damaged buildings during the day, injuring a firefighter, as emergency services scrambled to find temporary shelter for residents afraid to return home.

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake, which struck the Emilia-Romagna region 3.2 miles below ground at 4.04am, was felt across northern Italy, from Liguria to the Veneto, and was described by one official as the worst in the area since the 1300s. The last serious earthquake to strike Italy was the 6.3 scale shock in L'Aquila in 2009 which killed nearly 300.