Frantic search for survivors continues into the night as death toll rises to 159 with 100 trapped under the rubble as rescuers can only hear the sound of CATS

At least 159 people were killed and 100 people are believed to be trapped under rubble after the 6.2-magnitude quake struck at 3.30am local time this morning while villagers slept in their beds.


Today rescuers spoke of hearing children's screams from the rubble and locals were spotted frantically digging with their bare hands to try and save loved ones. One man, Guido Bordo, 69, lost his sister and her husband after they were trapped inside their holiday house in the hamlet of Illica, north of hard-hit Amatrice. Before their deaths were confirmed, he had described how he could only hear the sound of cats as he scrambled to find his loved-ones beneath the rubble. Hundreds of people were preparing to spend a chilly night wrapped in blankets (top right) or in hastily-assembled tents with the risk of aftershocks making it too risky for them to return home. But as the desperate search for survivors continued tonight, an eight-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble.