25/08/2016 Newsround

Hi, I'm Martin and this is Newsround.

First up an earthquake has caused huge destruction in towns

and villages in Central Italy.

It hit the area in the early hours of Wednesday morning,

leaving thousands of people homeless and over 200 people have died.

Before and after the earthquake:

These pictures show buildings turned to rubble.

The quake struck in an area north-east of Rome.

The worst affected places are the towns of Accumoli, Amatrice,

and the village of Pescara del Tronto.

This is the centre of Amatrice.

And the devastation here is astonishing.

Just looking on this side of the road, it will erect there's

almost nothing left this house.

Strong aftershocks and tremors have followed the earthquake.

Aftershocks are a smaller earthquake that happen after the main quake,

in the same area, causing even more damage to buildings and roads.

Police, firefighters, soldiers and volunteers

are all working to try and find survivors.

They carried on throughout the night, searching

through the rubble.

But there are moments of hope.

Like this ten-year-old girl being pulled to safety by rescuers.

In the village of Pescara del Tronto, which was built high

on a hillside, it was too difficult to get lifting equipment up there,

so rescuers used their hands and found this pet dog

alive under the rubble.

Doctors and nurses are treating injured people outside,

because its too dangerous to go inside Amatrice's damaged hospital.

People in the towns and villages have now been left homeless and it's

unsafe for people to go inside the buildings

which are still standing.

They spent last night sleeping in cars or in makeshift camps.

Yesterday's earthquake isn't the first to hit Italy.

The country has experienced quakes over the years.

But this was the most powerful to hit since 1980,

with a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale.

And remember if there's anything in the news that upsets

you there is always help and advice at Newsround online.

Now with the return of Team GB from Rio we've had loads of athletes

coming and going at Newsround HQ.

Today, we grabbed a chat with Gold medal winners Maddie,

Kate and Helen of the Womens Hockey team.

And we got some very special interviewers in to question them.

COMMENTATOR: 'Turns.

'Scores!

'That's the golden goal!

'Great Britain have won the Olympic gold medal.'

This question is for Maddie.

When you were younger, did you always feel part of the team

cos your training was so different?

Yes, I think so.

I think your teammates always make an effort to try and keep

the goalie involved.

There's definitely days where you spend some time

by yourself and you end up

singing to yourself or keeping yourself entertained.

But, yeah, it's always very much a team effort.

And the goalie very much plays a part in that.

When you were younger, did you play any other sport?

And if so, how did you choose hockey over them?

When I was really tiny, I did dancing and gymnastics,

probably very badly!

And then I started playing netball, and I swam a lot.

Me and my sister both went swimming.

And then when I went to secondary school,

hockey was just one of the sports that they did.

So, I did hockey, athletics, netball, tennis.

But hockey, I just loved it.

I loved being part of a team.

And it was fun.

Really fun.

Do you have to prepare differently for GB then with the

England hockey team?

Essentially, it's kind of the same.

We have a GB programme and it's made up of obviously English

players, Scottish players.

We don't have any Welsh players at the moment,

but we have done in the past, and hopefully will in the future.

And so we have different tournaments that is GB, like the Olympics.

But the World Cup is for England, and so our coach is able to just

select the English players.

And when it's GB, he can select the English and Scottish players.

This question is for Maddie.

Why is your hockey stick so different from the others?

So, I use the same as these guys in normal play,

but in the penalties, I changed it to a super-long,

41-inches goalie stick, which has a big head.

That allows me to get a bigger reach and try and tackle them.

There's one more question to ask.

Please will you sign the shirt for us?

Absolutely.

Of course.

That's all from me, I'm back with Friday's Newsround tomorrow morning.

See you then.