The civil protection agency gave the updated figure early Thursday, about 27 hours after the natural disaster struck.
Advertisement
She said others from another part of the convent apparently did not make it – three other nuns and four elderly women. “So we want to continue”.
The massive rescue operation involves more than 5,200 rescuers from the National Service of Civil Protection, and many more from outside administrations. “We need a new model of development, but also of prevention”.
Swedish authorities are on standby, if asked, to quickly assist Italy in the rescue and reconstruction process as the country attempts to recover from Wednesday’s deadly quake.
The quake was relatively shallow at 4 km (2.5 miles) below the earth’s surface.
The settlement of around 20 homes now looks like a ghost town.
Rescuers have advised journalists and bystanders to leave Amatrice urgently, as “the town is crumbling”, the BBC’s Jenny Hill says. She also survived but lost her husband. She was in Rome with her players when the quake hit and now they are headed back.
A 6.2 magnitude quake shook Norcia in Italy on Wednesday, affecting the towns of Amatrice, Pescara del Tronto and Accumoli, near the epicenter.
Another 264 people have been moved to a hospital for treatment.
On Thursday, Global Affairs Canada confirmed at least one citizen was among the almost 250 people that were killed as a result of Wednesday’s quake.
Nearly 24 hours after the magnitude 6.2 quake hit central Italy, rescue workers looked through the debris in Pescara del Tronto and found the legs of a girl.
Much of the houses 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. Furthermore, at least 53 were found dead, and at least 100 injured, in the town of Amatrice.
One of the worst-hit towns, Amatrice, was full for this weekend’s planned festival honoring its native bacon-and-tomato sauce dish – spaghetti all’ amatriciana.
“Half the town is gone”, RAI quoted him as saying, according to Reuters.
Compounding the problem, numerous oldest and most vulnerable structures are in remote villages inhabited mostly by retired Italians getting by on pensions with no cash to spare.
Advertisement
Hundreds of others were injured, some critically, and an unknown number were trapped under the ruins of collapsed buildings after Wednesday’s pre-dawn quake.
