Italy reels as earthquake sows terror

Rome

ITALY'S most powerful earthquake in 36 years dealt a new blow on Sunday to the country's seismically vulnerable heart, sending terrified residents fleeing for the third time in nine weeks and flattening a revered six-century-old church.

Fabrizio Curcio, head of the national civil protection agency, said around a dozen people had been injured but that there did not appear to have been any fatalities.