UPDATE 2 - Deadly Italian earthquake kills 63

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS PM RENZI’S COMMENTS

ANKARA (AA) - At least 63 people are reported dead after an earthquake struck central Italy on Wednesday morning, local media reported.

Italian news agency ANSA said: “Of these, 35 were counted in the Lazio village of Amatrice, 11 in the nearby village of Accumoli, and 17 confirmed in a hospital morgue in the city of Ascoli Piceno.”

The agency said that fatalities from the villages of Arquata and Pescara del Tronto, plus a little girl from Amatrice, who was pulled out of the rubble alive but died in hospital, were among the victims in the morgue.

The agency said many people were trapped under rubble in Accumuli, Amatrice and Pescara del Tronto following the earthquake, which struck at 3.36 a.m. local time (1336 GMT) and was followed by aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers [six miles] southeast of Norcia -- a town and commune in Perugia, central Italy.

The organization said that the earthquake occurred as the result of shallow normal faulting on a NW-SE oriented fault in the Central Apennines.

ANSA quoted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as vowing to “leave no one on their own - not one family, one town or one village," before visiting the scene.

"The priority right now is to dig," Renzi said.

Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, said in a statement: “The EU is ready to help."

“At the moment, the Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre is closely monitoring the situation and has already been in contact with the Italian civil protection authorities during the night regarding any help which could be requested,” he added.

In comments reported by ANSA, Pope Francis, speaking in the Vatican’s St. Peter's Square before 11,000 faithful, said he felt “great pain” over the deaths, adding that he was with all those “who have lost loved ones and those who still feel shaken by fear”.

The Central Apennine region has experienced several significant quakes in recorded history, including the April 2009 6.3-magnitude earthquake which struck near the town of L’Aquila, killing at least 295 people, injuring over 1,000 and leaving around 55,000 homeless.