A strong earthquake devastated a string of mountainous towns over a swathe of central Italy early on Wednesday, trapping residents under hills of rubble, with at least 37 people believed killed and many missing.
The quake struck in the early hours of the morning when most people were asleep, razing homes and buckling roads in a cluster of towns and villages some 170 km (105 miles) east of Rome.
The emergency services released an aerial photograph showing swathes of the town of Amatrice flattened, while debris filled the streets of nearby Accumoli.
“Now that daylight has come, we see that the situation is even more dreadful than we feared, with buildings collapsed, people trapped under the rubble and no sound of life,” said Accumoli mayor Stefano Petrucci.
Wide cracks appeared like open wounds on the buildings that were still standing. Residents were sifting through the rubble with their bare hands before emergency services arrived with earth-moving equipment and sniffer dogs.The quake hit during the summer when the populations of the towns and villages in the area, normally low during the rest of the year, are swelled by vacationers.
A family of four, including two boys aged 8 months and 9 years, were buried when their house imploded. Rescue teams used heavy equipment to try to clear the wreckage, but there was no indication they had survived the disaster.
Police said two people were known to have died in the nearby village of Pescara del Tronto. Some 100 people were still unaccounted for in the village of Arquata del Tronto and two bodies were removed from the debris in Amatrice. “Three quarters of the town is not there anymore,” Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI. “The aim now is to save as many lives as possible. There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there.”
A Reuters reporter said the town’s hospital had been badly damaged by the quake, with patients moved into the streets. RAI reported that two Afghan girls, believed to be asylum-seekers, were also missing in the town. The earthquake caused damage to towns in three regions – Umbria, Lazio and Marche.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which measured the quake at 6.2 magnitude, said it struck near the Umbrian city of Norcia, while Italy’s earthquake institute INGV registered it at 6.0 and put the epicentre closer to Accumoli and Amatrice, the two towns that appeared to be hardest hit.
Earthquake in Myanmar
Earthquake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale hit Myanmar on Wednesday.
Tremors were felt in northeastern states like Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar.
The epicentre of the quake was 25km West of Chauk in Burma.
Panic gripped Kolkata and Patna, where residents were seen rushing out of their offices and residences.
Metro services were temporarily suspended in Kolkata after earthquake tremors were felt in the region. The train were resumed after some time.
Fortunately no damages were reported from any of the areas.
The northeast is one of the most earthquake prone regions in the world.
US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake struck 143 km (88 miles) west of the city of Meiktila at a depth of 84 km (52 miles).
