After a 5.9-magnitude quake hit northern Italy, killing at least six and injuring about 50, thousands of people gathered in a square here with anxiety and worry.

Massimiliano Mazzanti, a young father of three children, stood not far from his home in the center of the 3,600-resident town of Sant'Agostino, holding his smallest three-year-old son in his arms.

"I was still watching television at one o'clock in the night, when I heard an incredible bang so that I thought it was a bomb. But reports did not say anything about it so I went to bed, and only three hours later I realized it was the first signal of a terrible earthquake," he told Xinhua.

According to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the earthquake had its epicenter between the cities of Ferrara and Modena, where Sant'Agostino is located, in central Emilia Romagna region, at a depth of 6.3 km.

A series of aftershocks hit the area and were also felt in many northern cities including Milan and Turin. Four night workers died in the collapse of three factories in the area, while an over 100-year-old lady was killed in her bed and another 37-year-old woman died by heart attack during the quake.

"I immediately thought of my wife and children. We will not sleep at home tonight," Mazzanti said.

City environment councilor Lorenzo Grazioli, who lives in a nearby hamlet, said the quake experience was "apocalyptic."

"It was the most terrible experience in my life, which I could never imagine. As most of Italy, this is a seismic area, but is also a place with abundant sand and water, crossed by Reno River, which should prevent shakes of such level," he told Xinhua.

He also said an over 600-year-old beautiful church in the San Carlo had completely collapsed following the shake, which was followed by at least eight other shakes.

According to an old man living in Sant'Agostino, Pigo Ghino, "the tragedy was in the air."

"I suffered from a strong headache for the past week, I am very sensitive to environmental disasters and I was sure an earthquake would happen," he told Xinhua.

A clerk in nearby ceramics factory Ceramiche Sant'Agostino, where two workers were killed at night, said she was shocked by her colleagues' death.

"A part of the factory collapsed, and this sounds incredible to me given it is the biggest factory in the entire province. Had the earthquake happened during the day, damage could have been much more serious, it would have been a real tragedy," she said.

Other local residents noted a group of 30 children was supposed to hold a ceremony in the morning inside another church that partly collapsed.

"Thinking of what we risked, I can say that fortunately it happened in the night," said a woman who has been mayor of Sant'Agostino until 2009.

"That was my office for 10 years," she said sadly when looking at the government building in the background, which half collapsed.

She is most worried about her old parents living in the town, who fortunately were not injured. "But most private homes here have suffered indescribable damage," she said.

Local authorities ordered residents not to get close to historic buildings, while the eldest and seriously sick people were rushed to nearby hospitals for precaution.

"Everything was shaking. I was awoken in the middle of the night by my wife's shouting that we were going to die soon," said Veber Gabioli, a man standing out of his home with his son.

"We immediately got up and saw everything was dreadfully shaking. Bottles and ceramics fell down from shelves, doors opened and pictures dropped from the wall. In 65 years of my life, I have never seen anything like that," he told Xinhua.

Then his wife fell down and was injured. "I took her to a nearby hospital. This is a Sunday I had never wished to spend in my life."