AMATRICE, Italy: The death toll from a powerful earthquake in central Italy rose to 247 on Thursday amid fears many more corpses would be found in the rubble of devastated mountain villages.
Rescuers sifted through collapsed masonry in the search for survivors but their grim mission was clouded by uncertainty about exactly how many people had been staying in communities closest to the epicentre of Wednesday’s quake.
Hundreds of people spent the night sleeping in their cars or in hastily-assembled tents or as guests of families in nearby areas less affected by the quake. Monica, a survivor from the tourist town, told of her numbed response when a 4.5-magnitude aftershock rattled the area.
“We are sleeping in the car and there were shocks all night. When the biggest one came, the car started moving and shaking but what have we got to lose now? We have lost our house. So many friends and family are dead. We have lost everything, even our fear,” she said.
Measuring 6.0-6.2 magnitude, the quake’s epicentre was near the towns of Accumoli and Amatrice – occurring at the shallow depth of four kilometres (2.5 miles) – according to monitors.
It was only the latest in a long string of killer quakes in the central Apennines, part of the mountainous “spine” that runs down Italy. Records dating back seven centuries attest to tens of thousands of deaths.
The Civil Protection Agency – which is coordinating the rescue effort – said that some 264 people had suffered injuries serious enough to be hospitalised. Several of them are in a critical state.
Although firemen and volunteers on the ground were pessimistic about the chance of finding any more survivors, several of them recalled that the last survivor of a 2009 in nearby L’Aquila was pulled from the rubble some 72 hours after it struck.
“The operation continued throughout the night and obviously there will be no let-up until it is absolutely clear that there is no possibility of finding any more people in the ruins,” said Civil Protection Agency Emergency Unit Head Immacolata Postiglione.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was chairing an emergency cabinet meeting which he said would put in place the first plans for reconstruction. “The objective is to rebuild and start again,” he said.