Italy holiday island quake claims two

AN EARTHQUAKE that struck the Italian holiday island of Ischia yesterday caused destruction that left two people dead at peak tourist season and rescue workers were still struggling yesterday to free two children from the rubble.

A woman was killed in Casamicciola, in the north of the small tourist island, hit by debris that fell from a church, and the body of another was spotted in the rubble of a collapsed house, local media said.

At around 4am emergency workers rescued a seven-month-old baby, crying but alive, after hours of effort. They were still struggling to free the baby’s two brothers, who trapped but communicating with emergency services through the rubble, according to Naples prefecture.

According to local media, the two children, aged four and seven, are trapped under a bed but are in touch with rescue workers by phone. It was their pregnant mother, healthy and safe, who raised the alarm. The father was rescued at 2.30am.

“In Casamicciola, a building collapsed and three people were pulled alive from the rubble – two women and a man,” the head of the local department of civil protection, Angelo Borrelli, said yesterday.

Two small communes – Casam- icciola and neighbouring Lacco Ameno – had borne the brunt of the quake, he added.

The 4.0 magnitude tremor hit the northwest of the island at 8.57pm on Monday, with a depth of some 10km. Italian authorities first put the quake at 3.6, but later revised it up.

The main earthquake was followed by 14 smaller aftershocks, Borrelli said. Several buildings in the area collapsed and others had large, ominous cracks.

The Rai News 24 television channel broadcast images of holidaymakers by their cars with their bags packed, with other people sitting in their gardens or outside their houses.

According to local media, many cars were waiting at Ischia port eager to head back to Naples as soon as possible.

The quake struck just days ahead of the first anniversary of the 6.0 magnitude quake that killed almost 300 people in and around Amatrice in central Italy. In October last year and January this year three other earthquakes hit the same region.

The quake response benefited from the presence of emergency responders who happened to already be on the island to fight the forest fires that have plagued Italy this summer, local media said. — AFP