A 4.3-magnitude aftershock has struck the central Italian town of Amatrice which was hit hardest by a devastating earthquake that has claimed 247 lives as of Thursday noon.
The aftershock took place at 14:36 on Thursday.
Rescuers have warned that the final death toll of Wednesday's quake which measured 6.2 on the Richter scale may exceed the total that perished in L'Aquila in 2009, when a 6.3 magnitude quake claimed 308 lives.
The earthquake hit the city of Rieti at 03:32 on Wednesday with a shallow depth of 4.2 kilometers, according to the National Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
