“Unfortunately, 90% we pull out are dead, but some make it, that’s why we are here”, says a volunteer in Amatrice.
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Yangon: A powerful 6.8 magnitude quake struck central Myanmar yesterday, killing at least one person and damaging pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan, officials said.
The tiny towns of Amatrice and Accumoli were the hardest hit and claim the lion’s share of the casualties.
Thousands of rescuers are using heavy lifting equipment to sift through the rubble but many are also using their bare hands.
It took 17 hours and several firefighters to rescue her, but 10-year-old Giulia was pulled from the rubble alive today after an quake struck central Italy Wednesday.
Nello Caffini on Thursday carried the belongings of his sister-in-law, Maria Pia, on his head as he left the home in the small town of Pescara del Tronto. No one here has hope left, and most have fled as strong aftershocks threaten even more destruction, she said.
“I lost many of my friends”, a visibly shocked survivor said.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s cabinet was meeting on Thursday to decide emergency measures to help the affected communities.
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.
Now, with efforts ongoing to rescue people affected by the disaster, the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa), has taken to Twitter to seek some very 21st-century support from locals: their internet connection.
On Thursday, the sun rose on frightened people who had slept in cars or tents, the earth continuing to tremble under their feet from aftershocks, hundreds of which have struck since the quake.
Media reports say some 8,000 Romanians live in the area in central Italy where the quake struck early Wednesday. In recent quakes, some of these more modern buildings have been the deadliest: the university dormitory that collapsed in the 2009 L’Aquila quake, killing 11 students; the elementary school that crumbled in San Giuliano di Puglia in 2002, killing 26 children – the town’s entire first-grade class.
The towns at the epicenter of the quake – Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto – are scenes of devastation, with what were once charming three-story buildings pancaked by the disaster.
While a handful of survivors were pulled from the wreckage on Thursday, it looked increasingly like the search and rescue operation was moving towards an effort to recover bodies. Cheers broke out when she was pulled out.
Fabrizio Curcio, director of Italy’s civil protection agency, activated national emergency procedures.
Italian rescue workers are expecting fewer casualties than initially feared at the site of a hotel that was badly damaged in Wednesday’s natural disaster.
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Officials said they expected to confirm more deaths as rescuers continued to locate victims beneath the rubble of flattened mountainside towns.
