Up to 30 people are feared dead following an avalanche that struck a hotel in Abruzzo after a series of strong earthquakes which hit central Italy, a region devastated by deadly tremors last year.
20 firemen, two mountain rescue teams, six ambulances and local police were heading to the hotel, but the weather meant it took them hours to arrive, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Agency.
The most powerful quake yesterday, which reached a magnitude 5.7, struck near the hill town of Amatrice, some 100km northeast of Rome. Much of the area had already been abandoned after last year’s earthquakes.
The central Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo regions have been grappling with heavy snow, and one man, aged 82, died after the snow and one of the tremors made the roof of a farm building fall on him, reported Reuters, citing a fire service spokesperson.
“PEOPLE SO SORELY TRIED”
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said soldiers would help rescue teams get to the affected villages.
“This repetition of strong quakes is alarming for people who have already been so sorely tried,” Gentiloni said in Berlin.
A 30-year-old woman and a 17-year-old man were pulled out from the rubble, suffering from hypothermia, in the small town of Castiglione Messer Raimondo, the fire service said.
“Some areas have no electricity because of the snow, so even cellphones don’t work,” said Sante Stragoni, Mayor of Acquasanta Terme, a town hit hard by a quake on August 24 that killed 300 people. “The snow is two metres deep in some areas,” he told SkyTG 24 television.
In Rome, buildings wobbled and the underground metro system was shut for several hours. Schoolchildren were sent home, and museums told visitors to leave.
‘HIGH RISK’ REMAINS
The US Geological Survey said the three strongest earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.3, 5.7 and 5.6, all struck in the space of an hour.
Gianluca Valsensise, a seismologist at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV), said the risk of another quake of similar size in the area was high.
“Wednesday’s quakes could have come as one single event of magnitude 6 or higher,” Valensise said, adding, “the earth’s crust has for some reason decided to break up in smaller pieces.”
In all, there were 10 quakes over magnitude four clustered in a 10-km radius around Amatrice, which was devastated by last August’s tremor, along with dozens of weaker ones. The bell tower of the town’s Sant’Agostino church, badly damaged in August, finally collapsed.
Source: Reuters, AFP
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