San Giuliano di Puglia, Italy ? An earthquake jolted south-central Italy on Thursday, sending a nursery school roof crashing down on a class of preschoolers during a lunchtime Halloween party. At least 22 people were killed, nearly all of them children at the school.

Driven on by faint voices coming from the rubble, frantic rescuers worked through the night to save more than a dozen children who remained trapped after the 5.4 magnitude quake struck the Molise region, shaking the town of Campobasso and surrounding villages northeast of Naples.

San Giuliano di Puglia, a village of 1,195 people, was the hardest hit, with several buildings damaged. The ANSA news agency said 3,000 people in the region fled damaged homes.

The yellow schoolhouse in San Giuliano di Puglia collapsed entirely on itself as 56 children and their teachers celebrated the holiday.

Anguished parents rushed to the scene and kept a vigil overnight into this morning, bundled in blankets to guard against the evening chill. They watched as rescuers used cranes, blowtorches and bare hands to claw at the quake debris, removing roof tiles and slabs of concrete while listening for the faint sounds of trapped children.

Rescuers save a boy from the rubble of the collapsed school roof in San Giuliano di Puglia, near Campobasso, southern Italy. An earthquake Thursday shook central and southern Italy, trapping 56 children and their teachers in a nursery school. At least 22 people died.