Italy earthquake: Death toll rises to 247

There is no report of any Indian casualty in the massive earthquake which rocked Italy today claiming several lives, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday.

 

“Massive earthquake of 6.2 magnitude has struck Italy.  @IndiainItaly has informed me that there is no report of any Indian casualty,” she tweeted.

 

Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, which had a magnitude of between 6.0 and 6.2.

 

Hundreds of people spent a chilly night in hastily assembled tents with the risk of aftershocks making it too risky for them to return home.

 

The death toll, from a powerful earthquake, in Italy rose to 247 on Thursday, officials said, as rescuers desperately searched for survivors in the rubble of devastated mountain villages. 

 

Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken the area since the earthquake. On Thursday, the sun rose on frightened people who had slept in cars or tents, the earth continuing to tremble under their feet. Two aftershocks registered 5.1 and 5.4 just before dawn.

 

Meanwhile, a strong aftershock with a preliminary magnitude of 4.3 has hit an earthquake-struck area in Italy, causing more damage to buildings in a town nearly destroyed a day earlier. The aftershock caused one building to partially collapse, sending up plumes of smoke and panic in Amatrice.

 

The earthquake was powerful enough to be felt in Bologna to the north and Naples to the south, both more than 220 km (135 miles) from the epicentre.

 

The populations of the four worst-hit towns – Amatrice, Pescara del Tronto, Arquata del Tronto and Accumoli – increase by up to tenfold in the summer, and many of those killed or missing were visitors.

 

Aerial video taken by drones showed swathes of Amatrice, last year voted one of Italy’s most beautiful historic towns, completely flattened.