By: Agencies Reporters
A powerful earthquake toppled homes, churches and shops in a wide swath of medieval towns in central Italy Wednesday, killing at least 120 people, according to Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
Dozens more were missing or feared dead from the magnitude-6.2 earthquake and a series of aftershocks that jolted Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche, three regions 80 to 100 miles northeast of Rome.
Rescue teams using bulldozers, and aided by townspeople with their bare hands, were still poring through the piles of rock, metal and wood late Wednesday still looking for possible survivors. Police near the town of Ascoli said they could hear cries for help from under the rubble but lacked the heavy equipment to move the rocks, according the RAI radio.
“We need chain saws, shears to cut iron bars, and jacks to remove beams: everything, we need everything,” civil protection worker Andrea Gentili told the Associated Press.
Renzi spoke Wednesday evening in the provincial capital of Rieti after flying over the Le Marche region and visiting first responders and survivors the picturesque town of Amatrice, one of the hardest hit.
There was no immediate or exact breakdown of the death toll, but the Italian news agency ANSA earlier reported at least 35 dead in Amatrice, 11 in Accumoli, near Rieti, and 17 in the province of Ascoli Piceno, which includes Pescara del Tronto. Renzi reported 35 dead in Le Marche.
Fabrizio Curcio, the director of Italy’s civil protection agency, activated national emergency procedures. He said the quake was on par with one in L’Aquilla in 2009 that left more than 300 people dead.
Much of city center of Amatrice was covered with mounds of debris as structures tumbled in the initial quake and aftershocks. Resident of this popular tourist destination of around 3,000 people gathered in the piazzas, dazed by the quake and fearful of more temblors.
“The whole ceiling fell but did not hit me,” said resident Maria Gianni, according to the AP. “I just managed to put a pillow on my head and I wasn’t hit luckily, just slightly injured my leg.”
The Vatican sent a six-man team from the Vatican City fire squad to Amatrice early Thursday. A statement said the decision was taken as a “sign of the pope’s concrete proximity to the people affected by the quake.
Mayor Sergio Pirozzi, of Amatrice, told the AP that rescue teams were trying to reach all 69 hamlets around his town. “Half of the town doesn’t exist anymore,” he told RAI-TV. “People are stuck underneath the rubble. Houses are no longer there.”
