247 killed in Italy horror
AT LEAST 247 PEOPLE were dead and dozens more were missing after a devastating earthquake ripped through central Italy early Wednesday, trapping residents in the rubble as they slept — though there was at least one miraculous rescue of a child.
Entire blocks of Amatrice, a town near the earthquake’s epicenter, were destroyed after the first temblor struck about 3:30 a.m. local time near Perugia. Powerful aftershocks followed.
Residents and rescue workers pulled people from collapsed buildings, including a 10-year-old girl who was found alive in the smoking ruins of Pescara del Tronto, one of the towns in central Italy demolished by the massive quake.
“She’s alive!” neighbors yelled as the girl was pulled out and rushed to a hospital. There were no immediate details about her condition.
Aerial photographs of Amatrice showed it was virtually flattened by the 6.2-magnitude quake that was felt as far as 100 miles away in Rome. “The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, known worldwide for its iconic pasta all’Amatriciana and ancient architecture. “We had one of the most beautiful places in Italy, and now we have nothing.”
The countryside town, home to some 2,500 residents, was set to hold its 50th annual Festival of the Spaghetti all’Amatriciana this weekend in honor of one of Italy’s most famous dishes.
The earthquake cut power and sent people running into the streets, where the hands of a clock on a stone tower were frozen in time, marking the moment when the quake hit.
Landslides tore through Pescara del Tronto and Arquata del Tronto, quiet villages built into lush hillsides and separated by only 2 miles.
At least five people — including a family of four — died when a building in the small town of Accumoli collapsed.
“Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life,” Accumoli Mayor Stefano Petrucci told Reuters.
The initial tremor was followed by at least seven major after-shocks, with the epicenter in Norcia, a town 70 miles northeast of Rome, where startled residents in the Italian capital reported swaying homes.
“It felt like the bed was on rollers,” said American tourist Michael Gilroy,who told CNN he witnessed the chaos from his hotel in Montepulciano.
In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake tore through central Italy and killed more than 300 people.