The residents of the mountainous region that was severely damaged by the natural disaster were asked to provide open internet access in order to assist the communication of rescue forces, who continue to search for survivors underneath the ruins.
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SALETTA, Italy (CNN) – A strong aftershock jolted the Italian town of Amatrice Thursday, making an already arduous rescue operation even more hard as the clock ticks down on finding survivors of Wednesday’s quake that has already left at least 241 people dead.
More than 1,000 people have been displaced by the quake, and Italy’s Civil Protection agency said no residents were allowed to sleep in the devastated town of Amatrice on Wednesday night.
At least 250 people have died after the grade 6.2 magnitude quake struck in the region of Umbria in the early hours, an area popular with summer tourists.
One area of focus was the Hotel Roma in Amatrice, famous for the Amatriciana bacon and tomato pasta sauce which brings food lovers to the medieval hilltop town each August for its food festival.
In an interview with The Independent, Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said the strong tremor killed one of every 10 residents of Amatrice town.
While hopes of finding more people alive diminished by the hour, firefighters’ spokesman Luca Cari recalled that survivors were found in L’Aquila up to 72 hours after that quake.
Rescuers refused to say when their work would shift from saving lives to recovering bodies.
Italy’s Civil Protection agency said of the people killed in the quake, at least 53 of them were in Amatrice, and at least 100 people were injured. Most of the dead – 184 – were in Amatrice.
The latest death toll was given on Thursday morning – 190 deaths in Rieti province and 57 in neighbouring Ascoli Piceno province. A Spaniard and five Romanians were among the dead, according to their governments. Another 46 died in Arquata, and 11 in Accumoli.
Amid scenes of carnage, dozens of emergency services staff and volunteers were determined to attempt to pluck more survivors from the ruins. Many Amatrice residents spent the night outdoors. Unless they have been reinforced in recent years, such structures are easily damaged or destroyed by shaking.
Though prospects at this point are dim, search efforts continue.
Those old towns do not have to conform to the country’s anti-seismic building codes.
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“As geologists we have been saying for years that we are very far away in Italy from having a culture of prevention”, said Francesco Peduto, president of the Council of Italian Geologists.
