The quake-hit Lazio hill town of Amatrice’s bell tower has completely collapsed after several strong earthquakes struck central Italy on Wednesday, plunging the region into chaos.
The 13th-century steeple was damaged but left standing by the magnitude 6.2 quake in August quake that flattened the town centre and killed 238 people there.
The tower's clock famously stopped just after the deadly earthquake struck at 3.36am on 24 August and became a symbol of the disaster.
The medieval tower lost its bell but was one of the few buildings in the town to remain intact. It was severely damaged by further quakes that rattled the region in October, with the most powerful measuring 6.5 magnitude.
The latest earthquakes follow 36 hours of continuous snowfall in areas close to Amatrice and another badly-hit mountain town, Norcia, and in neighbouring Abruzzo. Italy's fire services tweeted that snow-covered roads and streets were causing "operational difficulties" in the quake zone.
Amatrice's mayor Sergio Pirozzi told Adnkronos he was "extremely worried" about people in outlying villages who he said had been trapped in their homes by damage to buildings and roads caused by the quakes and the heavy snowfalls.
"I am extremely worried. I have entire villages cut off and people can't get out of the their houses," he told Adnkronos.
"We've had the biggest snowfall on record since 1954. I've asked for turbines to remove the snow to enable access roads to reopen," he said.
"I am asking myself what we have done to deserve this," Pirozzi said.
