The provisional death toll from
an earthquake that hit central Italy early Wednesday has risen
to 120, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told a press conference in
Rieti.
The toll may rise, he said, adding "now is the time for
tears, prayer and emotion" and vowing swift and successful
reconstruction.
"It will take a long time to handle this emergency", he
added, saying cabinet would take the first "immediate" measures
Thursday morning.
The 6.0-magnitude quake flattened mountain towns between
Lazio, Umbria and Marche.
Some 64 people are known to have died in the village of
Amatrice near Rieti alone.
The earthquake, which struck at 03:36 local time and was
followed by a second, 5.4 magnitude seism at 04:33 between
Umbria and the Marche, was said by civil protection authorities
to be "comparable in intensity" to the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
in which over 300 people died.
A few hundred were reported injured and an unspecified
number of people were still missing as of the early evening on
Wednesday.
About 200 aftershocks were felt, the strongest of which had
a magnitude of 4.9 on the Richer scale.
Renzi visited Amatrice where he met with the head of the
civil protection agency and the infrastructure and transport
minister, Grazinao Delrio.
There were reports of "apocalyptic scenes" with many
collapsed buildings in the towns and villages affected. Rescuers
had difficulty accessing the area due to landslides and damaged
infrastructure.
Many people were saved by rescue workers who used even
their hands to dig out survivors, including an 11-year-old boy
whose calls for help from under the ruins of his home and a
43-year-old whose legs were stuck under rubble for hours.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday
called Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni to voice condolences to
the Italian government and confirmed the US's readiness to
respond to any requests for help, echoing a similar offer made
to President Sergio Mattarella by President Barack Obama.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his
condolences and the pope said he was "greatly affected" after
hearing the mountain village of Amatrice was razed to the
ground.
L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said 250 temporary homes
built after the 2009 earthquake were available for the newly
displaced. The Rieti provincial chapter of Italian blood
donation charity AVIS has put out a call for people to donate
blood for the injured.
Mayor Stefano Petrucci said 2,500 people had been displaced
from their homes.
The national emergency fund has 234 million euros that will
be used for immediate aid to earthquake-stricken towns and
villages in central Italy, the economy ministry said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
