中新网4月7日电 意大利政府官员表示，罗马东北面城市拉奎拉发生的里氏6.3级地震已造成至少150人死亡，1500人受伤。
据英国广播公司报道，倒塌的楼房据信包括一座大学学生宿舍、数座教堂和钟楼。
意大利国家民防管理局官员米奥佐说，人口7万的拉奎拉市内有3000至1万座楼房倒塌或受损，数以千计居民无家可归。
拉奎拉市长恰伦特早些时候称，当地近10万人地震后流离失所。
总理贝卢斯科尼宣布当即进入紧急状态，据报还取消了访问俄罗斯首都莫斯科的行程。
地震在当地时间星期一(4月6日)凌晨3时32分(格林尼治标准时间1时32分)发生，震中位于首都罗马东北面约95公里。
地震持续约30秒，拉奎拉全市各处数千居民纷纷涌到街上。
该地区星期天也发生过一次里氏4.6级地震，当时没有造成破坏。
中世纪古城
拉奎拉是阿布鲁佐大区的首府，位处山区，公元13世纪建城。记者们说，市内许多建筑物都不具备抵抗强震能力。
据报道，就连市区外围的一些现代建筑都在地震中坍塌。
意大利中部广泛地区明显感受到这次地震。据路透社报道，一些民众在地震发生后涌到街上。
BBC驻罗马记者肯尼迪说，地震持续了15到20秒。他本人也从睡梦中惊醒。
意大利很少发生强烈地震。2002年，意大利普利亚区圣朱利亚诺发生的一场地震造成20多人死亡。
1997年，意大利中部发生的一次地震导致13人丧生。
据救援人员称，意大利今日上午发生的地震已经导致至少92人死亡，数万人无家可归，伤亡人数可能进一步上升。
意大利中部地区6日凌晨3点32分(北京时间9点32分)发生强烈地震，造成大量房屋被毁，可能会有一些人被困于废墟之中。
大利总理贝卢斯科尼签署命令，宣布意大利进入紧急状态，全国动员，展开对地震受灾地区的救援工作。贝卢斯科尼还取消了原定对俄罗斯的访问，并且决定亲自前往震中阿奎拉市视察
目前意大利民防及军队、宪兵等有关部门正在展开积极的救援工作。当地居民也积极展开了自救。
L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck a swathe of central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing more than 90 people and flattening whole towns.
At least 50,000 people have been made homeless, officials said.
Most of the dead were in L'Aquila, a 13th-century mountain city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome, and surrounding towns and villages in the Abruzzo region.
"Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety," Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said as MPs observed a moment of silence.
Ansa news agency, quoting rescue workers, said the death toll had reached 92 nearly 12 hours after the quake struck.
National Civil Protection head Guido Bertolaso confirmed that more than 70 people were dead but said official figures would not be updated before families were informed.
Most of the dead were in L'Aquila, a 13th-century mountain city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome, and surrounding towns and villages in the Abruzzo region.
Civil Protection Department officials said up to 50,000 people may have been made homeless in some 26 cities and towns. More than 1,500 people were injured and thousands of houses, churches and buildings collapsed or were damaged.
"I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb," said L'Aquila resident Angela Palumbo, 87.
"We managed to escape with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life."
Rubble was strewn throughout the city of 68,000 people and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue teams. Old women wailed and residents armed with nothing but bare hands helped firefighters and rescue workers tear through the rubble.
In the small town of Onna, 10 people were killed, said a Reuters photographer who saw a mother and her infant daughter carried away in the same coffin.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi canceled a trip to Moscow and declared a national emergency, which would free up funds for aid and rebuilding. Pope Benedict said he was saying a special prayer for the victims.
Older houses and buildings made of stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much restoration, collapsed like straw houses.
Hospitals appealed for help from doctors and nurses throughout Italy. The smell of gas filled some parts of the mountain towns and villages as mains ruptured.
Berlusconi told reporters in L'Aquila that tent cities and field hospitals would be set up there and hotels on the Adriatic coast would be requisitioned to shelter the homeless.
Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy. It struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and registered between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitude.
"MY FATHER IS SURELY DEAD"
"When the quake hit, I rushed out to my father's house and opened the main door and everything had collapsed. My father is surely dead. I called for help but no one was around," said Camillo Berardi in L'Aquila.
A resident standing by an apartment block that was reduced to the height of an adult said: "This building was four storeys 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.
Part of a university residence and a hotel collapsed in L'Aquila and at least one person was still trapped.
At least four Romanesque and Renaissance churches and a 16th century castle were damaged, the Culture Ministry said.
Part of the nave of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, one of the area's most famous churches, collapsed. To the north, the belltower of the lavish Renaissance Basilica of San Bernardino also crumbled.
Bridges and highways in the mountainous area were closed as a precaution.
Weeks before the disaster, an Italian scientist had predicted a major quake around L'Aquila, based on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas.
Seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.
Civil Protection reassured locals at the end of March that tremors being felt were "absolutely normal" for a seismic area.
The quake was the latest and strongest in a series to hit the L'Aquila area on Sunday and Monday.
Earthquakes can be particularly dangerous in parts of Italy because so many buildings are centuries-old. About 2,700 people died in an earthquake in the south in 1980.
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