At least 247 people were killed in the quake that demolished whole villages in the mountainous region around 90 miles from Rome.
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The 6.0 magnitude quake devastated the two towns and has left at least 247 people dead across the northern Lazio and Marche region.
On Thursday, Amatrice was hit by a 4.3-magnitude aftershock, one of more than 400 temblors that have continued to devastate the area following the quake.
A 10-year-old girl was rescued from the ruins of a building in the town of Pescara del Tronto, after being trapped upside down for 17 hours.
Rescue crews worked through the night using heavy equipment and even their bare hands to search for survivors.
A rescue team pulled a 10-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house in town of Pescara del Tronto, 18 hours after it was flattened by a devastating quake in Italy’s central Apennines.
Another woman, sitting in front of her destroyed home with a blanket over her shoulders, said she didn’t know what had become of her loved ones.
“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.
“We didn’t see any happy stories here”, she said. There were 368 injured people rescued from the center of the natural disaster, according to a report by BBC.
“When we learned that the hardest hit place was here, we came, we spoke to our bishop and he encouraged us to come here to comfort the families of the victims”, said the Rev. Marco as he walked through Pescara del Tronto.
In recent Italian quakes, some modern buildings – many of them public institutions – have been the deadliest.
Wednesday’s quake was one of the most deadly in Italy in recent years. VIDEO: Amatrice residents search rubble for belongingsThe civil protection agency set up tent cities around the affected towns to accommodate the homeless, 1,200 of whom took advantage of the offer to spend the night, civil protection officials said Thursday. The quake had a shallow depth of between four and 10 kilometers, the agencies said.
Also involved were nine helicopters, 200 emergency vehicles and 50 canine rescue squads.
Aerial photographs of the town showed it was nearly completely leveled. The quake hit at 3:36 a.m. local time and was felt across most of central Italy, including in Rome and Florence, sending people running into the streets and cutting power.
An 18-month-old girl was among the victims in Arquata del Tronto, while an 11-year-old boy died after the collapse of a hotel in Amatrice. “I hope we get some help”.
– July 17, 2001: At least three people are killed in an quake in Alto Adige, near Bolzano in northern Italy.
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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed the quake’s location and its magnitude.
