Italian National Institute of Geophysical and Volcanology (INGV – Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) has registered about 500 aftershocks and said it is closely monitoring the highly seismic area along the Apennine mountain range.
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Amatrice’s mayor had initially said 70 guests were in the crumbled hotel ahead of this weekend’s festival, but rescue workers later halved that estimate and the owner said most guests had managed to escape. During this period, this region has been hit by at least six earthquakes that have caused very strong to severe shaking.
“Many cases have shown in the past that even after two days, people can be rescued alive”, said Luigi D’Angelo from Italy’s Civil Protection Department. Most of the dead – 190 – were in Amatrice and Accumuli and their nearby hamlets.
Operations chief Immacolata Postiglione said the toll was lowered from the 247 she had reported earlier Thursday due to a revision from the area of Arquata in Le Marche region.
There was no clear estimate of how many people might still be missing, since the rustic area was packed with summer vacationers.
Thousands of homeless spent the night in tents set up all around the quake-stricken villages and towns.
Hundreds of people had to spend a chilly night in tents and shelters to avoid aftershocks that could be unsafe if they returned home.
In total, 350 Amatrice residents were staying in temporary shelters. “They have lost everything: the work of an entire life, like those who have a business, a shop, a pharmacy, a grocery store. From one day to another, they discovered everything they had was destroyed”. “We are far behind in the other lessons”.
Italy will rebuild communities devastated by this week’s quake and will relaunch efforts to protect the country’s buildings and infrastructure from natural disasters, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Thursday.
The Italian Red Cross published an unusual announcement today, calling on residents of the mountainous region that was severely damaged by the quake to disable their Wi-Fi passwords in order to assist the communication of rescue forces.
The toll appeared likely to surpass that from the last major quake to strike Italy, a temblor that killed more than 300 people in the central city of L’Aquila in 2009.
184 of the dead were from Amatrice, the town hit the hardest. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.2. Their convictions were ultimately overturned on appeal.
It comes after the United Kingdom government said it had offered help with the recovery effort following Wednesday’s quake, which killed at least 250 people.
An official in Amatrice told the BBC at least three British citizens were among the people killed in the town, which was one of the worst affected areas following the quake on Wednesday morning.
The 10-year-old child was found alive after being trapped for 17 hours under rubble after the massive quake that devastated Italy.
Crowds had gathered round after one person spotted signs of life under the rubble, saying: “You can hear something under here”.
Cheers broke out when she was pulled out.
“It was necessary to do this to be able to identify the bodies and to get a green light to bury them”, Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Saieva told Adnkronos.
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Monica, a survivor from Amatrice, said: “We are sleeping in the auto and there were shocks all night”.
