Italy's President to Cut Short Israel Visit to Attend Quake-Hit Areas

Italian President Sergio Mattarella will wrap up his visit to Israel ahead of schedule to attend on Wednesday the Italian regions, which suffered from the devastating earthquake, local media reported Tuesday, citing sources in the presidential administration.

ROME (Sputnik) – Mattarella is expected to leave for the Italian city of Perugia as soon as he returns to Rome.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the 6.5-magnitude tremor in central Italy was registered at 06:41 GMT on Sunday. The epicenter of the earthquake laid 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep between the cities of Perugia and Macerata. Several powerful tremors followed the major earthquake, which is the most powerful one since 1980.

Destruction has been registered in 100 cities in the regions of Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Lazio in central Italy as a result of the strong earthquake.

According to the Italian Civil Defense service, the earthquake did not result in any casualties, but left 20 people injured and some 40,000 without shelter.

Three big earthquakes have occurred in Italy for the past three months. The previous tremors of 6.0 and 5.9-magnitude were registered on August 24 and October 26.