MILAN, Italy -- An earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor shook the region just over a week ago, destroying their homes.
Officials and a source from the Italian Red Cross said several people were trapped under the rubble of houses and warehouses in the Emilia-Romagna region. Police said 10 people were confirmed dead but the toll was likely to rise.
The United States Geological Survey said the 5.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), was centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna and was felt across much of northern and central Italy.
"The situation is very serious, some people are stuck under the rubble," Alberto Silvestri, the mayor of San Felice sul Panaro, one of the towns near the epicenter, told SkyTG24.
PhotoBlog: Factory collapses as second big quake hits northern Italy
Prime Minister Mario Monti said: "I want to assure everyone that the state will do all that it must do, all that is possible to do, as fast as it can to guarantee the return to normality in a region so special, so important, so productive for Italy."
Italian media also said a tower in San Felice sul Panarohad collapsed.
The quake hit the same region where a stronger temblor measuring 6.0 on May 20 killed seven people, most when factories working overnight collapsed.
That quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including ancient churches and castles, and forced more than 7,000 people to sleep outdoors in tents.
It also hit production of some of the area's most internationally famous produce, including Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Farmers estimated the damage to agriculture in one of Italy's most fertile zones at more than 200 million euros.
People trapped under rubble
On Tuesday, officials said operations to rescue people from the rubble had been hampered by disruption to the mobile phone network.
"The town has been largely damaged. There are people under the rubble, we don't know how many," a police officer from Cavezzo told Reuters.
Train services around Bologna, near Modena, were disrupted, media said, and schools and other public buildings had been evacuated as far south as Florence.
"We felt a very strong tremor," said Raffaella Besola, a resident of Bologna.
Television footage on ITV News showed evacuees from the previous quake peering out of shaking tents in disbelief.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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