The epicentre was an area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio; scores are still missing while mayor of Amatrice said “half the village has disappeared”
Rescuers carry a victim after the earthquake in Amatrice, Italy
Accumoli: A powerful pre-dawn earthquake, measuring between 6.0 and 6.2 on the monitors, devastated mountain villages in central Italy yesterday, leaving at least 38 people dead and dozens more injured, trapped or missing.
Rescuers carry a victim after the earthquake in Amatrice, Italy. Pic/AFP
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Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, a remote area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio.
In the first official death toll, Italy’s civil protection unit said there had been 38 deaths in and around the villages of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.
“There are still so many people under masonry, so many missing,” said Immacolata Postiglione, the head of the unit’s emergency department.
“My sister and her husband are under the rubble, we’re waiting for diggers, but they can’t get up here,” said Guido Bordo (69) in the tiny village of Illica, near Accumoli.
“There’s no sound from them, we only heard their cats. I wasn’t here, as soon as the quake happened, I rushed here. They pulled my sister’s children out, they’re in hospital now,” he added.
Other victims included a nine-month-old baby whose parents survived. But, two other children aged four and seven were saved by their grandmother, who ushered them under a bed as soon as the shaking began.
PM Matteo Renzi cancelled a planned trip to France for a meeting with European Socialist leaders to oversee the response to the disaster.
“The situation is dramatic, there are many dead,” said Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi. “Half the village has disappeared.”
Pope Francis interrupted his audience in St Peter’s Square to express shock. “To hear the mayor of Amatrice say his village no longer exists and knowing that there are children among the victims, is very upsetting for me,” he said.
The shocks were strong enough to wake residents of central Rome, 150 kms away.
The worst damage was suffered by Pescara del Tronto, a hamlet near Arquata, which “just completely disintegrated” according to mayor Aleandro Petrucci.
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