- (AFP) -- Rescuers desperately searched the rubble of
a school for survivors of an earthquake that hit southern Italy Thursday
killing at least 20 people, 18 of them children.
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- About 15 people, probably all children, were still believed
to be buried under the remains of the kindergarten and primary school in
the worst-hit village of San Giuliano di Puglia, police said.
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- The school complex collapsed when the quake rocked the
Campobasso region in the morning, causing buildings to topple in San Guiliano,
an historic hilltop village of 1,200 residents.
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- Rescue workers pulled another three children out alive
from the rubble late Thursday, but the death toll also rose steadily.
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- More than 20 children and one teacher were brought out
alive by rescue workers earlier in the day out of the 56 children, four
teachers and two monitors who were believed to been in the village school
preparing to celebrate Halloween.
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- Rescuers aided by sniffer dogs and a mechanical digger
were working against the clock early Friday to try and find more survivors.
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- "We have been able to detect under a slab of concrete
in the rubble a small boy whose legs are trapped by the stone," a
firefighter at the scene told AFP late Thursday. "Unfortunately beside
him there is a boy already dead."
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- In addition to the 15 children killed in the school,
two women, aged 56 and 90, also died when their home in the same village
collapsed.
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- All the victims in the school were in the old part of
the building, built in 1953. Those in a section opened last September survived.
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- The bodies of the dead children were laid in the school
gymnasium, which was turned into a makeshift mortuary.
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- "It's dangerous, there is a lot of rubble, it's
all unstable and we can't use the earthmovers nonstop," said Carlo,
one of the rescue workers.
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- "While one hears voices, talking, we are moving
very, very carefully because vibrations are very dangerous," said
the dust-covered 52 year-old Italian Red Cross worker.
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- Forty people, including seven or eight children, were
hospitalized in neighboring Larino, where their condition was listed as
not serious, hospital official Vincenzi D'Angelo said.
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- The quake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, struck
at 11:32 am (1032 GMT), rocking the eastern coastal region and wreaking
damage in San Giuliano di Puglia and nearby villages.
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- It was followed two hours later by a wave of aftershocks
measuring around 3.2 on the Richter scale, and two new tremors shook the
region at around 6:00 pm, further panicking residents.
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- The government declared a "state of emergency"
in Campobasso province after the quake, which followed closely on the heels
of tremors on the volcanic Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily.
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- The emergency status will enable a speedy release of
funds and the use of other resources including army assistance. The interior
ministry said helicopters and at least 200 rescue workers were despatched
to the disaster site.
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- "I could feel the earth literally moving under my
feet," said Gianfranci Di Ruta, a bar owner in the town. "The
lamps were swinging from the buildings. People were in shock."
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- The temblor was also felt in several other regions of
southern Italy, especially Foggia and Bari provinces, Abruzzo, Campania
and Basilicata, officials said.
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- In Campania, it brought back vivid memories of a major
earthquake that hit the region in 1980, killing 2,735 people and injuring
8,800.
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- The Berlusconi government was holding a cabinet meeting
to discuss emergency aid to quake-struck Sicily when news of the latest
earthquake came in.
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- The government announced 15 million euros in aid for
Sicily following both the eruption of Mount Etna on Sunday and an earthquake
Tuesday measuring 4.3.
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- Etna seemed calmer on Thursday but continued to spout
ash into the air, covering the area.
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- Pope John Paul II was "very concerned" about
the fate of the children still trapped under the rubble, and was receiving
regular updates on the situation, the Vatican said.
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