Three die in Italy earthquake

ROME, Italy -- A powerful earthquake which shook northern Italy has killed three people including a British and German tourist.

A British woman of Indian origin died after being crushed by a landslide triggered by the quake. Her boyfriend who was at her side is missing.

The couple were walking in the Alpine foothills south of Merano when tremors struck. She apparently used her last words to alert rescuers to the presence of her boyfriend buried under the landslide.

The London resident had been travelling in the mountains of Alto Adige with Stefan Marchetti and was found on Tuesday night under the rocks near Gargazzone, near the epicentre of the quake.

Rescue workers called off the search on Wednesday for the 33-year-old boyfriend of the unidentified woman, the ANSA news agency said.

Rescue worker Otto Goeggl said it was nearly impossible that the missing man could have survived the landslide

The body of a German tourist was located on Wednesday in Val D'Ultimo, although rescue teams were unable to reach it, ANSA said.

Rescue teams had searched for Bernd Kunz, 40, after he failed to return to his hotel on Tuesday night.

The third victim was another woman who died of a heart attack in Bolzano after the tremor, a fire brigade official said.

The quake, with a 5.2 magnitude, shook the Alto Adige region at 5:06 p.m. (1506 GMT) on Tuesday, six miles north of the town of Merano, close to the border with Austria.

According to ANSA, a man rescued on Tuesday in critical condition had died on his way to the hospital, but that report could not be confirmed.

A woman was also seriously injured when she fell off a frightened horse and remained in serious condition on Wednesday from a sustained head injury.

The injured woman was identified as Heike Mueller, the companion of the provincial president. ANSA reported her condition had improved overnight.

At least three tourists were injured by falling rocks in the Italian mountains, ANSA reported.

Food fell off market shelves, security alarms were set off and electricity failed briefly in parts of Merano, an important tourist centre and spa town of about 35,000 people.

Frightened residents and tourists flocked the streets with the local police receiving numerous phone calls.

"It made my heart jump. It was horrible, there was so much shaking and the noise of alarms and things," and elderly woman told a television news bulletin. "I don't know how I'm going to sleep alone tonight," she said.

Effects of the quake were felt as far as Venice and parts of Switzerland, Austria and Southern Germany.

No serious property damage occurred, however, several homes and buildings in the area developed cracks and a barn was destroyed by a falling boulder, officials told Reuters.

Enzo Boschi, director of the National Institute of Geophysics, told state television that the solid construction in the area of the epicentre prevented widespread damage and injuries.

Italy has a history of occasional earthquakes, with minor tremors occurring on a regular basis. The last major quake, measuring 5.5 and 5.6 on the Richter scale , struck in 1997 and killed 11 people in a central Apennine region of Umbria.