Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has pledged to find temporary housing for all those displaced by a series of powerful earthquakes in a central mountainous region.

Strong aftershocks have damaged two key access roads into quake-struck Amatrice, threatening to isolate the tiny Italian hilltop town as hopes fade that firefighters will find any more survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 278 people.

A DEER with a single horn in the centre of its head like the mythical unicorn has been spotted in an Italian nature reserve.