Groans audible as rescue continues
Groans from dying Italian children could be heard tonight from beneath tons of concrete after an earthquake brought their nursery school crashing down on top of them.
The bodies of six children and a teacher, who had been having a Halloween party with about 50 other youngsters aged between three and six, were dragged out from under the rubble but many more were still buried.
Eight of 20 rescued children were suffering from critical injuries.
Hours after the quake rocked central and southern Italy, rescue teams were clawing at the concrete in the search for survivors.
Rescue teams backed by bulldozers and earth movers worked into the night, using torches and removing concrete chunks with their bare hands in search of survivors.
“Rescue operations will be more difficult now, with the dark,” said Tonino Scarlatelli, an official in the Molise regional president’s office.
Firefighters brought out dusty, dazed children, as parents in the village of San Giuliano di Puglia – some with their faces painted for the annual trick or treat festivities – prayed their youngsters had survived.
Parents kept behind police tape frantically screamed out the names of trapped children.
“They were all together in the school because they were having a Halloween party,” said Scarlatelli.
“Two of its lofts gave way and the entire structure collapsed,” he said.
“Many buildings have collapsed throughout the village, we fear there might be other victims outside of the school,” he added.
The 50-year-old school building was surrounded by buildings that appeared to have been virtually untouched by the tremor.
Elsewhere, however, entire buildings were brought down by the quake.
The body of an 60-year-old woman was discovered in her wrecked home in the village of 1,200 people which lies near the epicentre of the quake and about 50 miles from Naples.
According to regional authorities, 24 children and teachers had been rescued and were being treated in hospital.
A total of 59 people were thought to be inside the school when the 5.4-magnitude quake struck the region north-east of Naples at 11:33 a.m. (12.33pm Irish time).
About 70% of the homes in the region were damaged, many with collapsed roofs, said the government’s forestry department.
“The scenario is devastating,” said forestry commander Luigi Falasca.
The earthquake, which was felt in a number of regions, including Campania, Apulia, Abruzzo and parts of Rome – which lies 130 miles from the worst affected area – damaged buildings and caused panic among the population.
Witnesses said the main quake was accompanied by a loud bang.
“It was a short but very intense tremor,” said a bar owner in Campobasso. “Glasses and bottles were flying around and people started hugging each other and crying,” he said.
Sergio Di Iacovo, a 50-year-old, was in his flat in Campobasso when the quake struck.
“I was almost knocked unconscious by the shock and couldn’t understand what was going on,” he said.
There were scenes of panic in Basilicata and Irpinia, where a devastating earthquake killed more than 2,500 people in 1980.
Hospitals as far away as Foggia, 45 miles to the east, were offering blood to the Campobasso region, but were stymied because they couldn’t get through on the phones, hospital officials said.
The quake was followed by at least two aftershocks, one with a 2.9 magnitude and another with a 3.7 magnitude – all with their epicentre around Campobasso, said Marco Ludovici, an official with the Civil Defence department in Rome.
The quake was felt across the Adriatic in Croatia, particularly on high floors of apartment buildings, the Croatian Seismological Institute said.
“It was a tremendous explosion,” said Giuseppe Moffa, an official at the regional president’s office in Campobasso.
Schools were evacuated in at least three towns in the Abruzzo region, as well as in the city of Isernia, about 15 miles away from Campobasso.
Scores of panicked residents fled their homes and went into the streets, the civil defence department said.
Cracks gaped in building walls, and chunks of plaster fell from ceilings, Italian news reports said. People in Campobasso reported a humming sound when the quake struck.
A 3.7 magnitude quake today also hit Mount Etna, the Sicilian volcano which began erupting Sunday. No damage was reported.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome said the Campobasso quake and the Etna quake 275 miles to the south were “certainly not connected.” “The two epicentres are very far away from one another, and the nature of the quakes are different,” said the institute’s Alessandro Amato. “The Etna quake is caused by its volcanic activity, the magma underneath the volcano, which is certainly not the case with the Campobasso quake,” he added.
He said since the Etna quake had a rather small circumference “it would be difficult to think it would cross the sea and various regions to reach Campobasso.”
In 1980, an earthquake in the area of Naples killed 2,570 people and left 30,000 homeless in the southern Campania and Basilicata regions.
