2 dead in Ischia quake (7)

(ANSA) - Naples, August 22 - 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 quake, police said. "Then he hit the rubble with a broom handle to attract rescuers," said Ischia Finance Guard commander Andrea Gentile.
    Earlier, two men and two women were pulled out of rubble alive.
    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".