The earth in the region of LAquila, the central Italian town hit by a major earthquake Monday, shifted by up to 15 centimetres (six inches), the Italian space agency said Saturday. It compared interferogram satellite radar images taken before and after the quake from the same angle which show movement of the earth with artificially coloured edges, each of which corresponds to a shift of 15 millimetres. At least 292 people are known to have died in the earthquake.