Rescuers search a crumbled building in Arcuata del Tronto, central Italy, where an earthquake struck Wednesday AFP photo
Accumoli (Italy), August 24: A powerful pre-dawn earthquake devastated mountain villages in central Italy Wednesday, leaving at least 120 people dead, dozens more injured or trapped under the rubble and thousands temporarily homeless.
Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, which had a magnitude of between 6.0 and 6.2.
It hit a remote area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio, to the north of a region devastated by a quake in 2009, rousing people in terrifying fashion.
Italy’s civil protection unit confirmed 120 fatalities in and around the villages of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.
“My sister and her husband are under the rubble, we’re waiting for diggers but they can’t get up here,” Guido Bordo, 69, told AFP in the tiny village of Illica, near Accumoli.
“There’s no sound from them, we only heard their cats. I wasn’t here, as soon as the quake happened I rushed here. They managed to pull my sister’s children out, they’re in hospital now,” he added, wringing his hands in anguish.
Other victims included a nine-month-old baby girl whose parents survived. Agencies
6.2 quake leaves
120 dead in Italy
“Half the village is gone,” said Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi after the earthquake
This is Italy’s most powerful quake since 2009, when 300 people were killed in L’Aquila
“To hear the Amatrice mayor say his village no longer exists is very upsetting for me,” said Pope Francis
Mild tremors in state
Bhubaneswar: With a 6.8 magnitude earthquake jolting Myanmar, mild tremors measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale were felt in several parts of the state including in the capital city Wednesday, triggering panic among people who rushed out of high-rise buildings in the twin cities. No loss of life or property was reported, said Special Relief Commissioner PK Mohapatra.
