Landslide hit Abruzzo village (2)

(ANSA) - Teramo, February 22 - Over half the Abruzzo hamlet of Ponzano at Civitella del Tronto is being engulfed by a landslide which is swallowing up houses "like an earthquake", officials said Wednesday. Some 33 homes have been evacuated leaving 98 people homeless as the landslide has cut a hill in two, they said, falling at a rate of a metre a day. Between 30 and 40 hectares of mostly arable land is sliding along with a stretch of provincial road being undermined at a depth of 15-20 metres, officials said. Abruzzo, like Lazio, Marche and Umbria, was hit by a devastating series of earthquakes last year.