Two dead, children trapped after quake hits Italy holiday island

Rome : A magnitude-4.0 earthquake struck the Italian holiday island of Ischia, causing destruction that left two people dead at peak tourist season, authorities said, as rescue workers struggled early Tuesday to free two children from the rubble.

A woman was killed in Casamicciola, in the north of the small tourist island, hit by debris that fell from a church, with the body of another spotted in the rubble of a collapsed house, local media reported.

Around 4am (0200 GMT) emergency workers rescued a seven-month-old baby, crying but alive, after hours of effort. They were still struggling to free the baby's two brothers, who were alive but trapped and communicating with emergency services through the rubble, according to Naples prefecture.

According to local media, the two children, aged 4 and 7, are trapped under a bed but are in touch with rescue workers by phone. It was their pregnant mother, healthy and safe, who raised the alarm. The father was rescued at 2:30am (0130 GMT).

"In Casamicciola, a building collapsed and three people were pulled alive from the rubble -- two women and a man," the head of the local department of civil protection, Angelo Borrelli, said at a press conference early Tuesday.

Two small communes, Casamicciola and neighbouring Lacco Ameno, had borne the brunt of the quake, he added.

The tremor hit the northwest of the island at 8:57 pm (1957 GMT), with a depth of some 10 kilometres. 

Italian authorities first put Monday's quake at 3.6, but subsequently revised it upward to 4.0 magnitude.

The main earthquake was followed by 14 smaller aftershocks, Borrelli said.

Several buildings in the area collapsed and others had large, ominous cracks.