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At least 120 people have died in a deadly earthquake that leveled buildings in Central Italy.

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The quake struck in the early hours of the morning when most residents were asleep, destroying homes and buckling roads in a cluster of communities 85 miles east of Rome.

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Accumoli mayor Stefano Petrucci said some 2,500 were left homeless in the local community, which is made up of 17 areas.

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

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The last major earthquake to hit the country struck the central city of L’Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people.

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The most deadly since the start of the 20th century came in 1908, when an earthquake followed by a tsunami killed an estimated 80,000 people in the southern regions of Sicily.