The death toll in the strong earthquake that hit central Italy Monday has risen to 260, the country's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday.

Rescue operation is still underway.

Three people cover themselves with a blanket as they take a rest in L'aquila, Italy, early April 7, 2009. The strong earthquake that hit central Italy on Monday has killed about 260 people, injured some 1,500 and left around 70,000 homeless, Italian media reported on Tuesday. [Wu Wei/Xinhua]

The earthquake, centered near L'Aquila about 95 km northeast of Rome, occurred at 03:32 local time (0132 GMT) early Monday.

Local media reported that the earthquake has been officially revised up to magnitude 6.2 from magnitude 5.8, the worst to hit Italy in the past 30 years.

People rest outdoors after an earthquake caused the collapse of St. Salvatore Hospital in Aquila April 6, 2009. A powerful earthquake struck a swathe of central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing about 260 people and flattening whole towns.[Xinhua]

Aftershocks on Tuesday continued to cause panic in the city and neighboring towns, Italian news agency ANSA said.

Officials said that about 200 aftershocks were registered after the fatal one, the majority of which were of low magnitude.

Berlusconi has declared a state of emergency and visited the disaster area and announced that Italy had decided to allocate 30 million euros (about 40 million US dollars) for relief efforts.  

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2009)