“We stand, as ever, in solidarity with the Italian nation and are ready to assist in any way we can”.
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“Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more terrible than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life”, said Accumoli mayor Stefano Petrucci.
Accumoli Mayor Stefano Petrucci told ANSA that all homes in the city are uninhabitable and that a tent city for the “entire population” would have to be set up.
Most deaths so far have been reported in the Lazio region villages of Accumoli and Amatrice, where at least 28 died. Numerous victims were from Rome. “We haven’t stopped digging all day”, said Marcello di Marco, 34, a farmer who travelled to help with emergency services’ rescue efforts in the hamlet of Pescara del Tronto.
Pope Francis said he was almost at a loss for words.
” ‘It was one of the most handsome towns of Italy and now there’s nothing left, ‘ she said, too distraught to give her name”. Many of those killed or missing were visitors.
Amatrice Mayor Pirozzi told state-run RAI radio and Sky TG24 that residents were buried under collapsed buildings, that the lights had gone out and that heavy equipment was needed to clear streets clogged with debris.
Rescuers working with emergency lighting in the darkness saved a 10-year-old girl, pulling her out of the rubble alive, where she had lain for some 17 hours in the hamlet of Pescara del Tronto.
Italy’s Civil Protection agency described the quake as “severe”.
Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting Illica, said workers eventually arrived after an hour or so.
“Unlike the L’Aquila quake, which was preceded by swarms of smaller quakes and led to claims – unjustified in my view – that the eventual big quake should have been predicted, this one appears to have struck out of the blue”. “There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there”.
A powerful quake shook central Italy on Wednesday, leaving at least 240 people dead and a trail of destruction across several mountain villages packed with holidaymakers. Later in her press conference, she upped the death toll to 38, without giving further details.
Photo: Paolo (left) turns his head as paramedics move in to take his uncle’s body away.
People come to Amatrice for the folklore, the traditions and the food, especially pasta Amatriciana, featuring chewy bits of pork jowl, pecorino cheese and tomato sauce.
A Polish woman who survived the natural disaster in central Italy says she will never forget the “evil murmur of moving walls”.
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“It’s bad, I’m 65 years old and I have never experienced anything like this, small tremors, yes, but nothing this big”. Tanned from her own holiday on the Adriatic coast, Agostini said she felt the quake there herself and instantly thought of her 85-year-old mother, Gilda Morante. Many buildings were made of brick or stone, which can fall apart during shaking. There are people injured. “I will remember till the end of my life this noise, the evil murmur of moving walls”.
