Killer quake ‘just like Dante’s Inferno’
120 dead as huge tremor rocks Italy
AT LEAST 120 people were killed as an earthquake destroyed three mountain towns in Italy amid nightmarish scenes compared to Dante’s Inferno yesterday.
The death toll, including a baby girl, is likely to rise as rescuers last night battled to save 150 people believed to be trapped under rubble.
Hundreds more were injured and thousands left homeless when the quake – measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale – caused homes to collapse at 3.36am local time. ‘The town isn’t here any more,’ said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of historic town Amatrice, one of the worst-hit communities.
The disaster area in central Italy, in between the three regions of Umbria, Latium and Marche, is packed with tourists for the summer season and is near the city of Perugia, which is popular with British holidaymakers.
Throughout the day, bloodied survivors were pulled from destroyed buildings. Rescuers spoke of hearing children’s anguished screams and locals were spotted frantically digging with their hands to try to save loved ones.
Agostino Severo, from Rome, who was visiting the hamlet of Illica, near Amatrice, said: ‘We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante’s Inferno. People were crying for help.’
Rocks and metal tumbled on to the streets and dazed residents huddled in piazzas as more than 40 aftershocks jolted the region.
As well as Amatrice, the nearby picturesque hilltop towns of Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto were left in ruins by the earthquake, which was so powerful it rocked buildings in the centre of Rome 85 miles away.
Many of those killed or missing were holidaymakers who live in Rome and have bought a second house for the summer or regularly return to visit their relatives, swelling the area’s usually low population. Amatrice is popular with Romans seeking cool mountain air in the summer.
The youngest victim was reportedly Marisol Piermarini, an 18-month-old girl, who was sleeping in her cradle at her family’s weekend house in Arquata del Tronto. The building where the family were staying collapsed but both her parents, Martina and Massimiliano, survived despite being trapped for hours beneath the ruins. They were taken to hospital with ‘many wounds’.
A relative, who rushed to the scene, said: ‘Rescuers wouldn’t allow me to pass, they said everything was crumbling to the ground, that it was dangerous. But I couldn’t care less, I had find my family. Unfortunately, there was no hope for the little girl.’
Maria Gianni, who was in Amatrice, said: ‘The whole ceiling fell but did not hit me. I just managed to put a pillow on my head and I wasn’t hit luckily, I just slightly injured my leg.’
The Italian army has been mobilised to help the rescue operation. Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited the area and promised: ‘No family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind.’
Pope Francis prayed for the victims and dispatched six of the Vatican’s 37-man fire department to join the rescue efforts.
At least three people were killed and historic temples damaged when a powerful earthquake hit Burma. Yesterday’s tremor struck an area around the ancient city of Bagan in the south Asian country, also known as Myanmar, and measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. Two girls, aged seven and 15, and a man, 22, were killed.
‘The whole ceiling fell’