Rome  - The death count from Monday's central Italian earthquake has risen to 250, Italian authorities reported on Wednesday.

Officials said they assume the death toll will rise as workers continued to find people buried under buildings which collapsed during the earthquake, which registered between 5.8 and 6.2 on the Richter scale.

Eleven of the bodies pulled from the rubble remain unidentified.

Strong aftershocks continued to shake the region, making rescue operations difficult. (dpa)