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The president of Italy's Marche region has talked of a "catastrophe" and appealed for aid as four quakes above magnitude 5 struck in one day, BBC reports.

Luca Ceriscioli said quakes and snow had caused landslides and thousands of families were suffering power cuts, with some villages left isolated.

In Teramo, Abruzzo, a man of 83 was found dead in the rubble of his barn which had collapsed, while in Ortolano, also in Abruzzo, a man was swept away by an avalanche, Italy's Ansa news agency reports.

The Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said it had recorded "some 200" tremors above magnitude 2 on Wednesday in Abruzzo and Lazio.

The first big quake struck at 10:25 (09:25 GMT) with a magnitude of around 5.3, followed at 11:14 with one of 5.4, followed some 11 minutes later by another of 5.3, the institute said.

At 14:33, a fourth quake measuring 5.1 occurred, the institute says.

Schools have been evacuated in the areas worst affected while in Rome, the underground system was shut as a safety precaution.