Story highlights Second earthquake more powerful than the first

Video from Italian TV shows stone buildings that fell

Campi, Italy (CNN) Two powerful earthquakes Wednesday struck central Italy about 50 miles north of the site of a deadly August quake that killed nearly 300 people, the US Geological Survey said.

The second quake -- with a magnitude of 6.1 -- was 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) north of Visso and 58 km (36 miles) from Perugia, the USGS reported.

Just a few hours earlier, a magnitude-5.5 quake struck the same region. The epicenter was about 9 kilometers away, south-southwest of the town of Visso. The first quake hit at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) between Perugia and Macerata, according to ANSA.

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This part of Italy is full of narrow roads linking small stone villages. Rescuers are fearful of mudslides and even of risking bringing heavy equipment up the narrow roads.

There have been no reports yet of injuries, although there was damage in Visso and another town, Campi, where the historic church, San Salvatore, was destroyed by the tremors -- the first severely damaged the 15th century structure and the second finished it off.

A completely destroyed house in the small town of Visso in central Italy after a 5.9 earthquake destroyed part of the town.

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