Two people were killed and at
least 39 injured in a 4.0 magnitude earthquake on the popular
Bay of Naples island of Ischia Monday night.
The two dead were women, one buried by plaster in a church
and the other engulfed by the ruins of her house.
Rescuers are digging to find a boy, aged five, in the ruins
of a house that collapsed at Casamicciola after his two brothers
aged three and seven months were pulled out alive.
Firefighters were said to be close to the five-year-old boy,
Ciro, after pulling out three-year-old Mattias.
Ciro saved his little brother Mattias by pulling him under a
bed with him after the Ischia quake, police said.
"Then he hit the rubble with a broom handle to attract
rescuers," said Ischia Finance Guard commander Andrea Gentile.
One of the injured is in a serious condition.
Many tourists have already left the island on specially
laid-on ferries.
Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli and fire service chief
Bruno Frattasi are on the island.
The government is set to call a state of emergency and the
civil protection department will appoint a special commissioner
after the earthquake, the department said in a statement.
The two dead woman have not yet been identified.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni tweeted "Italy is united in grief for
the victims and in solidarity. We are at the side of the forces
working on rescues and aid".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has vacationed several
times on Ischia, voiced her "deepest closeness" with the
islanders and "with the rescuers who are doing their best to
help".
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