Crews search for survivors of quake that killed more than 150 in Italy

Rescuers worked into the early morning hours Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors of a powerful earthquake that ripped through Italy’s mountainous Abruzzo region, killing scores of people and leaving tens of thousands homeless, CNN reports.

Tearful survivors, many of them clad in pajamas and blankets, watched as bodies were pulled from the rubble in the medieval city of L’Aquila, about 75 miles northeast of Rome. The quake killed more than 150 people, L’Aquila’s fire department said late Monday.

Nearly 24 hours after the quake hit, authorities were still unsure how many people remained trapped in the wreckage.

In L’Aquila, the regional capital, the earthquake caused “significant damage to monuments,” the New York Times reports, quoting Giuseppe Proietti, secretary general of the Italian Culture Ministry. The rear part of the apse of the Romanesque basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, much of which was restored in the 20th century, collapsed and cupolas in at least two churches in the historic center had cracked open.

Click here to read the CNN report.