Quake rescuers in race against time
- 00:01:56
- ITN
Quake rescuers in race against time
Rescuers are continuing to search for survivors of Italy's worst quake in 30 years which killed at least 179 people. More than 24 hours after the quake shook the central Italian region of Abruzzo, emergency workers dug out two students from collapsed buildings in the medieval mountain city of L'Aquila, with a population of 68,000 people, that was worst hit by the disaster. Rescuers have pulled around 100 people from the rubble but civil protection officials said hopes are fading of finding many more alive. They put the number of dead at 179, with at least 34 people missing and 1,500 injured. A further 17,000 people have been left homeless. The quake, measuring between 5.8 and 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck shortly after 3:30am (0130 GMT) on Monday, catching residents in their sleep and flattening houses, ancient churches and other buildings in 26 cities and towns. Aftershocks rattled the area, about 60 miles east of Rome, well into the night as thousands of people sheltered in their cars and in tent camps. "It is a serious disaster. Now we must rebuild and that will require huge sums of money," said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose government already faces a high deficit and huge public debt. Mr Berlusconi declared a national emergency and pledged to seek hundreds of millions of euros in EU disaster funds. He said his cabinet would provide over £27 million for immediate assistance and vowed to build a new town near L'Aquila in the next two years. He also ordered 1,000 troops to the area. In L'Aquila, where it is estimated that two-thirds of buildings have been ruined, emergency workers and firemen combed the rubble of a university dormitory, where several students are still believed buried. Each successful rescue sparked celebrations by anxious relatives and emergency workers, many of them volunteers. A fireman recounted how he pulled a boy alive from the mangled remains of his house after a day-long search. "All we could see was his head sticking from the rubble, his entire body was buried. We kept digging, picking piece by piece of debris and we finally managed to get him out - when we did the fatigue was great but so was our joy," he said. Shaken survivors described the quake striking like a bomb in the night and the anguish of not knowing the fate of loved ones. "I only remember this huge rumble and then someone dragged me out, but I don't know what happened to my wife and three-year-old son," said 35-year-old Stefano Esposito. It was Italy's worst earthquake since November 1980, when a quake measuring 6.5 killed 2,735 people. Many of the medieval villages surrounding L'Aquila were virtually flattened. In Onna, home to some 250 residents, at least 38 people died. Tearful relatives gathered as wooden coffins were placed on communal ground. Meanwhile, it has been revealed that weeks before the quake, an Italian scientist predicted a major quake around L'Aquila based on the radon gas found in seismically active areas, but he was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the internet. "For weeks they told us to stay calm, that we could live in our houses, that there was no problem. Now we see what the problem was," one female resident of L'Aquila said.
ITN | April 7, 2009
