Italy earthquake: More than 15,000 people in shelters

More than 15,000 people are being housed in temporary shelters after a powerful earthquake on Sunday jolted central Italy, a region battered by relentless tremors since August.

Dramatic images from the disaster zone show villages that appear entirely flattened, with historical buildings, including churches,

crumbling when the quake struck 10 kilometers below the earth's surface.

 Temporary shelters set up in the town of Arquata del Tronto following Sunday's massive earthquake

Remarkably, there have been no reports of deaths from the 6.6-magnitude quake -- the strongest to hit the country in more than three decades --  

as many of the towns had been evacuated following a devastating earthquake in August, which killed almost 300 people, as well as string tremors earlier last week.

Italy's Civil Protection agency said that of the 15,000 people it was assisting, more than 4,000 had been put up in hotel rooms on the Adriatic coast, while 10,000 were in temporary shelters in the regions of Umbria and Marche.