24 Aug 2016

Timeline: Major earthquakes to have rocked Italy

9:13 pm on 24 August 2016

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has brought down buildings in mountainous central Italy, trapping people under rubble and sending others fleeing into the streets.

Two men walk on a damaged home after a strong heartquake hit Amatrice

A damaged home in Amatrice after the strong earthquake hit central Italy. Photo: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP

LIVE UPDATES: "Severe" earthquake in central Italy

Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.

Here is a list of major earthquakes in Italy in the past century:

13 Jan 1915 - Some 32,600 were killed when an earthquake measuring 7.0 struck Avezzano in central Italy.

27 July 1930 - A quake measuring 6.5 strikes the region of Irpinia in southern Italy, killing around 1400 people.

6 May 1976 - An earthquake measuring 6.5 rocks Friuli in Italy's northeastern corner, killing 976 people and leaving 70,000 others homeless.

23 Nov 1980 - Some 2735 people were killed and more than 7500 injured in an earthquake measuring 6.5. The epicentre was at Eboli but damage was reported over a huge area towards Naples.

13 Dec 1990 - Earthquake centred in the sea off Sicily kills 13 people and injures 200.

26 Sept 26 1997 - Two earthquakes measuring 6.4 kill 11 people and cause serious damage to the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, damaging priceless Medieval frescoes.

17 July 2001 - An earthquake measuring 5.2 shakes the northern Italian region of Alto Adige, killing one woman.

31 Oct 31 2002 - A 5.9 shake hits Campobasso, south-central Italy, killing 30 people, most of them children, in San Giuliano di Puglia.

6 April 2009 - A powerful earthquake strikes the Abruzzo area east of Rome. It killed more than 300 people and devastated the 13th century city of L'Aquila.

29 May 2012 - More than 16 people were killed and 350 injured in the second big earthquake to hit the area around Modena in northern Italy. A quake nine days earlier killed nearly 10 people.

- Reuters