Dozens dead as big quake
hits Italy
By Deepa Babington
L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - A
powerful earthquake struck a huge swath of central Italy as
residents slept on Monday morning, killing at least 27 people when
thousands of houses, churches and other buildings collapsed or were
damaged.
The dead in Italy's worst quake
since 2002 were mainly in L'Aquila, a 13th-century mountain city
about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome with a population of 68,000,
and surrounding mountain villages in the Abruzzo region.
As aftershocks continued,
officials put the death toll at 27 less than six hours after the
quake but said the number was bound to rise.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
cancelled a trip to Moscow and declared a national emergency, which
would free up funds for aid and rebuilding. Pope Benedict said he
was saying a special prayer for the victims.
Older houses and buildings made of
stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much
restoration, collapsed like straw houses.
Hospitals appealed for help from
doctors and nurses throughout Italy. The stench of gas filled some
parts of the mountain towns and villages as mains
ruptured.
Residents of Rome, which is rarely
hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake, which rattled
furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy. It struck
shortly after 3.30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. British time) and registered 6.3
on the Richter scale.
"MY FATHER IS SURELY
DEAD"
"When the quake hit, I rushed out
to my father's house and opened the main door and everything had
collapsed. My father is surely dead. I called for help but no-one
was around," said Camillo Berardi in L'Aquila.
Others considered themselves
lucky, as old women wailed and residents armed with nothing but
bare hands and goodwill helped firefighters and rescue workers look
through the rubble.
"I woke up hearing what sounded
like a bomb," said Angela Palumbo, 87, as she walked on a street of
L'Aquila.
"We managed to escape with things
falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I
don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life," she
said.
Rubble was strewn throughout the
city and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue
teams.
"Thousands of people (could be
left) homeless and thousands of buildings collapsed or damaged,"
said Agostino Miozzo, an official at the Civil Protection
Department.
A resident in l'Aquila standing by
an apartment block that had been reduced to the height of an adult
said: "This building was four storeys high."
Some cars were buried by the
rubble.
In another section of the city,
residents tried to hush the wailing of grief to try to pinpoint the
sound of a crying baby.
It was the worst earthquake in
terms of deaths to hit Italy since 2002, when 30 people, most of
them children, were killed in a school collapse in the
south.
There were numerous reports of
some the area's centuries-old Romanesque and Renaissance churches
collapsing.
Part of a university residence and
a hotel collapsed in L'Aquila and at least one person was still
trapped under the rubble with the number of dead still
unknown.
The quake brought down the bell
tower of a church in the centre of L'Aquila. Bridges and highways
in the mountainous area were closed as a precaution.
The quake was the latest and
strongest in a series to hit the L'Aquila area on Sunday and
Monday. Earthquakes can be particularly dangerous in parts of Italy
because so many buildings are centuries-old.
(Writing by Philip Pullella;
Editing by Angus MacSwan)
RIP to those who perished.
