IT HIT LIKE A BOMB; Towns reduced to rubble in 30 seconds of devastation.

Byline: VICTORIA WARD; EMILY NASH 

SURVIVORS of Italy's devastating earthquake told yesterday how the deadly tremor felt like a bomb blast.

The quake - which struck just after 1.30am UK time and measured 6.3 on the Richter scale - left at least 157 dead, 1,500 injured and up to 50,000 homeless.

The death toll is feared to rise as 250 remained missing last night.

Up to 10,000 buildings in the medieval central Italian town of L'Aquila - near its epicentre - have been reduced to rubble.

Resident Angela Palumbo, 87, said: "I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb.

We escaped with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember seeing anything like this in my life."

As well as L'Aquila, 60 miles north-east of Rome, 25 other cities and towns lay in ruins.

Officials said the village of Onno was "wiped off the map". Rows of coffins lay in a field as at least 50 of its 400 residents lay dead.

Gianfranco Fini, speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament, grimly confirmed: "Some towns have been virtually destroyed in their entirety."

Around 4,000 rescuers were last night frantically trying to find survivors, many using their bare hands to claw through rubble.

On the outskirts of L'Aquila a two-year-old girl was dug from the ruins of her home - where she lay under the corpse of her mum, who had cradled the tot to save her.

A fireman said: "It was tragic to see. The girl's been taken to hospital but her mother sadly died shielding her from the debris." At least 60 people were pulled from the ruins.

The quake lasted for around 30 seconds and was felt in Rome and even Naples, 100 miles away. Brit Matthew Peacock, his wife and his son, five, felt the jolt in Amelia, 60 miles north of Rome.

He said: "The earth felt like jelly underneath. It felt like the house was being shaken from the rooftop.

My bed was banging against the wall and you could hear this creaking.

"I rushed to grab my son and stood underneath the doorway."

Many devastated towns and cities resembled bomb sites, with dazed survivors wandering through the wreckage clutching salvaged personal belongings. In L'Aquila, ambulance sirens filled the air.

And medics had to tend to hundreds of bloodied survivors outside the main hospital as colleagues inside struggled to cope with wave upon wave of casualties.

Only two of the operating rooms could be used as others were at risk of collapse.

Two field hospitals were to be set up to deal with the wounded.

Officials appealed for help from doctors and nurses across Italy.

But Francesco Rocca of the Italian Red Cross said: "The biggest problem will arrive at night as there are thousands and thousands of people we have to host in tents and hotels." Army and civil protection units from across Italy are also joining the rescue effort. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi scrapped a Moscow trip to rush to the disaster zone. He declared a state of emergency and warned of possible further tremors.

Mr Berlusconi pledged "a record number of rescuers" and insisted: "Nobody will be left alone."

Italy has a tragic history of quakes. In 2002, 30 people were killed - including 27 schoolkids and their teacher - in the southern town of San Giuliano di Puglia.

In 1980, 3,000 died in Naples. Four years earlier, 976 lost their lives when a quake rocked Friuli in the country's north-west. Earlier tremors in 1915 and 1908 killed 30,000 and 82,000 respectively.

Italy is vulnerable because it lies close to a fault line between the plates in the earth's crust.

Last night seismologist Giampaolo Giuliani claimed he warned L'Aquila residents weeks ago they faced a catastrophe but was instead reported for "spreading alarm".

He said: "There are people who owe me an apology. It is they who must carry the weight of what has happened on their conscience."

But Italy's National Geophysics Institute hit back: "Every time there is an earthquake there are people who claim they predicted it.

"It is not possible to predict earthquakes."

Voice of the Mirror: Page 10

CAUSE OF ITALIAN EARTHQUAKE

The area lies in a collision zone between the African and European tectonic plates. The belt of seismic activity runs along the line of the Apennine mountain chain and covers the length of the Italian peninsula. The collision zone is complex which makes the area very unstable. A quake in 1915 near Avezzano, about 40km south of Sunday's epicentre, killed around 30,000 people.

HOW AN EARTHQUAKE CAUSES DAMAGE

An earthquake releases energy in the form of waves that radiate from the earthquake source. Different types of energy waves shake the ground differently and also travel at different speeds.

P wave: The fastest waves, and the first to arrive.

When they reach the surface they cause vertical shaking.

S wave: Slower than the P wave and arrives next, shaking the ground up and down and back and forth.

Rayleigh waves: Destructive wave that churns over and under like rolling ocean waves.

Love waves: Make flattened round-and-round motions. Very destructive and often responsible for making buildings collapse.

CAPTION(S):

RESCUE MISSION Emergency workers and volunteers carry survivor on stretcher LEADER'S LAMENT Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi flies over quake scene TOUCHING SCENE Rescuer comforts child COMFORT FOOD Bandaged child eats as she rests outside BLACK HOLE Gaping chasm left in street after earthquake hit FLATTENED Homes razed by the quake in L'Aquila PAINSTAKING SEARCH Rescue workers clear rubble by hand SURVIVOR'S GRIEF Woman cries over a coffin lined up with many others BLOODIED VICTIM Man hurt in landslides CARRIED TO SAFETY Distressed woman