Pope Francis skipped his traditional catechism for his Wednesday general audience and instead invited pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square to recite the rosary with him. “There’s been a landslide and a bridge might collapse”.
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“I don’t know what to say”.
Since Italy sits on two fault lines, it has gained a reputation as one of the most earthquake-prone countries throughout Europe. Dozens of villages in the mountainous region are believed to have been affected. The tension that accumulates leads to a sudden release in the form of under-surface rock movement that causes earth tremors.
A clock is stopped at the time of the quake in Amatrice.
“We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante’s Inferno”, said Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting Illica.
Rescue workers called Amatrice residents’ cellphones, and tried to get to those who answered, the affiliate reported.
The quake-hit Italian city of Amatrice is famed as the birthplace of one of the most famous Roman dishes: spaghetti all’amatriciana, a hearty dish of pasta made with bacon-like bits of cured pork jowl, pecorino cheese and tomato.
The center of Amatrice was devastated, with entire buildings razed and the air thick with dust and smelling strongly of gas.
Legend has it that the amatriciana sauce was originally prepared only with the pork – known as guanciale – and sheep-milk pecorino available to peasants, and that tomatoes were added at a later date.
People stood stunned on the roadside, coated with a film of dust from the quake, still dressed in the pajamas they were wearing when they fled their houses.
“Half of the town doesn’t exist anymore”, Sergio Perozzi, mayor of Amatrice, told RAI-TV.
Update – 11.40am: At least 38 people have died in the magnitude 6 quake that struck central Italy, according to Italy’s civil protection agency.
The office of Premier Matteo Renzi tweeted that heavy equipment was on its way.
As daylight dawned, residents, civil protection workers and even priests began digging out with shovels, bulldozers and their bare hands, trying to reach survivors. He said he had trouble communicating with emergency responders and couldn’t reach the hospital.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry is ready to provide assistance to Italy in coping with the aftermath of a strong quake. She wrote that “the pictures of the devastation are shocking”. He didn’t elaborate on what help France is offering.
Mr Pirozzi said his town had been destroyed, during a plea for help from Italian authorities.
Although it struck at a shallow depth of 10km, its intensity was compared to the Aquila quake in April 2009 in which 309 people died.
The agency, which is coordinating the rescue effort, gave the preliminary toll as rescue teams continued to claw through debris in hard-hit towns. Israel often offers and sends rescue assistance to countries that have experienced temblors.
The quake was also felt in the Marche region, about two hours drive from the epicentre under normal conditions. The ANSA news agency reported 10 dead there, though that is yet to be confirmed.
Pope Francis has skipped his catechism lesson during his Wednesday general audience and instead led pilgrims in praying the rosary for the victims of Italy’s quake.
A strong natural disaster in central Italy reduced three towns to rubble as people slept early Wednesday, with reports that as many as 50 people were killed and hundreds injured as rescue crews raced to dig out survivors. He said he wanted to express his pain and solidarity with the victims.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Center put the magnitude at 6.1.
A family of four is also reportedly trapped under rubble and feared dead.
The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3.36am (8.36am in Bangkok) and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome where residents of the capital felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks.
The hardest-hit towns were Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, some 80 kilometers northeast of Rome.
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.
“There are so many dead I can not make an estimate”, he said.
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“We’re digging, digging. hoping to find someone alive”, he told the affiliate.
