A magnitude 6.2 quake struck central Italy early Wednesday, with reports of fatalities and significant damage surfacing quickly in its aftermath. At least 16 people were reported dead in two hard-hit towns where rescue crews raced to dig survivors out of the rubble, but the toll was expected to rise as crews reached homes in more remote hamlets. Much of the housing in the area – unreinforced brick or concrete frame buildings – were vulnerable to earthquakes, according to the US Geological Survey, and offered little resistance to the powerful temblor.
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A resident of the Rieti region, which is between Rome and the epicentre of the quake, told the Rainews24 channel that she and most of her neighbours had come out onto the street after feeling “very strong shaking”.
The first two confirmed victims were an elderly couple whose home collapsed in Pescara del Tronto in the Marche region, east of the epicentre, according to national broadcaster Rai.
“The town is no more”, Mayor Sergio Pirozzi told CNN affiliate Rai.
“I don’t know what to say”.
The European Union’s top crisis management official says Italy has requested satellite images of earthquake-hit parts of the country as Rome tries to establish the scope of the damage. “Rescue workers arrived after one hour. one and a half hours”.
As per the USGS, the quake struck at 03:36 am on Wednesday (local time) 10 km southeast of Norcia, which is a town in the Perugia province. “I woke up and saw that everything was destroyed”, said Marianna, 35, a nun who was helping to look after the elderly people staying in the convent on a summer retreat.
Rocks and metal tumbled onto the streets of the city centre and dazed residents huddled in piazzas as more than 40 aftershocks jolted the region into the early morning hours, some as strong as 5.1. “I’m sure God will reward them”, Marianna said.
More than 300 died after a 6.3-magnitude tremor hit the capital of the mountainous Abruzzo region.
“During the holidays there are a lot of people there – so we don’t have a precise number (of how many are affected)”, said Tommaso della Longa, a spokesman for the Red Cross.
In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude natural disaster struck in the same region and killed more than 300 people.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over the human losses as a result of a devastating quake in the country’s central regions, the Kremlin press service reported on August 24.
