Another Earthquake in Italy kills 15

20 May 2012 Last updated at 07:27 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

An earthquake in northern Italy has killed at least three people and caused thousands of others to flee into the streets, officials say.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck in the middle of the night, about 35km (22 miles) north of the city of Bologna.

The officials say the three victims died when the buildings they were working in overnight collapsed.

Italian TV showed damaged factories and church steeples in the region. Aftershocks have been reported.

Rescue teams are now combing the area amid reports that a number of people may be buried under rubble.

The earthquake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10km just after 0400 local time (0200 GMT).

Northern Italy is frequently rocked by minor earthquake, but the country is well-prepared to deal with them, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

The last major quake to hit the country killed nearly 300 people in the central town of L'Aquila in 2009.

Rome (CNN)-- A strong earthquake struck northern Italy early Sunday, leaving at least seven people dead, authorities said.

Two people were killed in a ceramic factory in Sant'Agostino di Ferrara, and one person died when a work shed collapsed in Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno, said Elisabetta Maffani, spokeswoman for Italy's civil protection agency.

In addition, a woman in Bologna died of a heart attack during an evacuation; a Moroccan national died when the factory he was working in collapsed; and a sixth victim was found dead under rubble in Sant'Agostino, Maffani said. The seventh was located under a collapsed house, according to Alessio Bellodi of the civil protection branch in Bologna.


Authorities are still assessing damage in northern Italy.
A strong earthquake in northern Italy left seven dead Sunday.
Smoke rises from a building in San Felice Sul Panaro.
The damaged central street of San Carlo village. At least 50 people were injured. Workers were searching through rubble for survivors in Sant'Agostino.

The 6.0-magnitude quake occurred just after 4 a.m. (10 p.m. ET Saturday), 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) outside Camposanto, northwest of Bologna, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

In Sant'Agostino, the quake knocked down a church bell.

Authorities were still assessing damage in the region, the civil protection office said. The agency said it anticipates reports of more injuries as rescue workers make their way to remote villages in the mountainous area.

In January, the same area was struck by a 5.3-magnitude quake.

In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the central Italian city of L'Aquila, killing more than 300 people and causing widespread destruction.

CNN's Joseph Netto contributed

5:27pm UK, Sunday May 20, 2012

Some 3,000 people have reportedly been evacuated from an earthquake zone in northern Italy, after a tremor and powerful aftershocks killed six people.
At least 50 others were injured after the magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Bologna.

It hit shortly after 4am local time, felling homes and causing damage to several historic buildings in the area. Thousands of people fled into the streets.



Italian military police stand near a body in Sant' Agostino

According to Italian media reports, four of the fatalities were workers on night shifts.

Three people were reported to have been killed when the steel roof of a ceramics factory collapsed in the town of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara.

Another person was killed at a polyester factory in Ponte Rodoni do Bondeno.

The mother of one of the victims told state television: "He wasn't supposed to be there. He changed shifts with a friend who wanted to go to the beach."

Two women - one believed to be over 100-years-old and another aged 37 - were reported to have died after suffering heart attacks brought on by panic during the quake.

A five-year-old girl trapped in rubble after her home collapsed was rescued by firefighters in Finale Emilia after frantic phone calls between a local resident, a family friend in New York and emergency services, it was reported.

There are fears the death toll could rise still with reports of people missing.

Ancient bell towers in towns were damaged, several church steeples also partly collapsed, while hospitals were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The roof of the cathedral in Mirandola collapsed. "Our schoolchildren were to receive their first communion here this morning. If it had happened then it would have been a disaster," the local priest told Reuters.

A 14th Century mediaeval castle in the town of San Felipe Sul Pan was badly damaged, sparking alarm that one of its towers could topple.



Damaged cars in the rubble

The initial tremor - the strongest to hit Italy in three years - shook the major towns of Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo, Verona and Mantua.

It lasted around 20 seconds and was felt throughout the northeast of the peninsula, from the Emilia-Romagna region to Venice, with its epicentre at Finale Emilia, 36 kilometres (22 miles) north of Bologna, the US Geological Survey said.

It was followed by a series of strong 5.1 magnitude aftershocks.

Mathew Hatton, who lives in Modena, was in a bar when the quake struck and everyone was forced to run out of the building.

He told Sky News: "There were a few people crying, some car alarms going off... it was quite a strong one.

"We saw a bit of confusion, people running around. It was a strange experience."



The ceramics factory where three workers are reported to have died

The region shaken by the quake is Italy's industrial heartland but also home to priceless architectural and art treasures. The historic centre of Ferrara is classified as a world heritage site.

"We were very afraid. All the village went out into the street after the first shock. After the second, many took shelter in their cars, but fortunately the damage was fairly limited, above all affecting churches," Umberto Mazza, the mayor of Ostiglia, near Mantua, told Italian news agency Ansa.

As dawn broke over the region, residents milled about the streets inspecting the damage.

Earlier, a 4.1-magnitude quake shook the Lombardy region around Milan, Italy's financial and business capital, and was felt in the historic cities of Modena, Mantua, Ferrara and Rovigo.

The last major earthquake to hit Italy was of 6.3 magnitude in the central Italian city of L'Aquila in 2009, killing around 300 people.

In January, a 5.3 magnitude quake in northern Italy was felt in Genoa, Bologna, Turin and Italy's financial capital, Milan.

Nick Pisa, in Rome

Rescue teams are frantically searching for survivors after a powerful earthquake in northern Italy - the second in nine days.
The 5.8-magnitude quake struck just after 9am local time in an area that had already suffered substantial damage following a quake on May 20.

That seismic event left seven people dead and some 5,000 in temporary accommodation.

The latest tremor has claimed the lives of at least 15 people, and injured 200.

Factories, warehouses and churches collapsed, dealing another blow to a region where thousands are still homeless from a stronger tremor earlier this month.

There are fears other people could be dead beneath the rubble of buildings following the latest tragedy.

One of the victims was a parish priest at Rovereto di Novi, after part of the church he was in collapsed. He was named locally as Father Ivo Martini.

Dozens more people were reported injured, including a woman who jumped from the second floor of her apartment.



Italian firefighters search the debris of a collapsed factory in Mirandola

The area affected was around 40km (25 miles) northwest of Bologna - the same region suffering a series of aftershocks following the earthquake in the early hours of May 20.

TV pictures showed crumpled buildings in nearby San Felice Panaro as rescuers clawed at rubble with their bare hands to reach survivors.

The town's mayor Alberto Silvestri said: "There have been victims, this is very serious."

The quake was felt across the whole of Italy, with people running into the streets as far away as Milan, Venice, Genoa and Perugia, with shocks also felt in neighbouring Austria.

In the 90 minutes following the earthquake there were also four aftershocks measuring above 4.0 on the Richter scale - the largest being 4.7 just before 10.30am (local time).

Spokesman for the Italian Geophysics and Volcanology Institute Alessandro Amato said: "It looks like a new fault line has broken - this earthquake happened just west of the initial one earlier this month."



Rescue workers at a damaged building in Medolla

Train services north of Bologna, a major junction in the Italian network, were also disrupted with services from the city to Milan, Venice and Verona affected.

Mobile networks were also impaired with communication in and out of the affected area sporadic, as frantic relatives and friends tried to call loved ones across a wide swathe of northern Italy.

Officials said many buildings that had already been partially damaged collapsed in the new earthquake, with churches being particularly badly-hit and the cathedral in Mirandola destroyed.

A photo posted on Twitter showed rubble surrounding the altar of the cathedral, the wooden pews crushed like matchsticks under tons of masonry.

Terrified locals fled into the streets in the city of Bologna as shops, schools, offices and factories emptied, while other neighbouring towns and cities ordered immediate evacuations of all public buildings.

Two workers are thought to have been killed in Medolla, near Modena, after a warehouse collapsed on an industrial estate, while the other victim was in San Felice.

Fernando Ferioli, the mayor of Finale Emilia, which was also severely damaged in the earlier earthquake said: "It's a disaster here. There have been fresh collapses. This is another earthquake, it is not an aftershock."

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h toll from Italy earthquake risesBy the CNN Wire Staff
May 30, 2012 -- Updated 1715 GMT (0115 HKT)
A car is crushed by falling rubble from a building in Carvezzo, Italy following the 5.8-magnitude earthquake on May 29, 2012.
A building's roof collapsed after the earthquake in Cavezzo, Italy, where eyewitnesses say about 70% of the town was destroyed. Elderly people walk in a temprorary emergency camp after the earthquake in Mirandola; the government declared a state of emergency in the quake area. Local people wake up after sleeping in a park early on May 30, 2012 in Crevalcore. Dozens of aftershocks hit northeastern Italy overnight as thousands of jittery survivors spent the night in tents. This tower collapsed in the quake on May 29, 2012. The earthquake rocked northeastern Italy just days after another quake in the same region.
Fallen buildings fill the street in Mirandola; one of the towns closest to the quake's epicentre and an area that eyewitnesses say was most heavily damaged. A distraught woman is comforted by policemen after the earthquake, which has killed at least 17 people. The cathedral of Mirandola is badly damaged, with large parts of it scattered across the ground. Police tape is strung across several areas of the town to prevent more casualties. Personal belongings from a collapsed building are strewn across a street in Cavezzo, where eyewitnesses say about 70% of the town was destroyed. Rescue workers give medical help to one of the 200 people injured in the quake.
Long cracks caused by the quake stretch across the dome of the basilica of St. Anthony in Padua.
Hundreds of blocks of cheese fell on top of one another at a parmigiano factory in San Giovanni, Parsiceto. The owner of the factory surveys the damage on May 21, 2012, following an earlier quake.

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NEW: Industrial and agricultural groups warn of a huge cost resulting from the earthquake
NEW: Italy's president, prime minister and parliamentary leaders meet in Rome
Modena's chief prosecutor opens an investigation into the collapse of factories
The quake struck the same region where seven people were killed nine days earlier
Are you there? Share your story with CNN iReport.

Medolla, Italy (CNN) -- The death toll from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in northern Italy rose to 17 after the discovery of another body, officials said Wednesday, as questions were asked about why factory buildings collapsed.

The latest body was found in the rubble of the collapsed factory in the area of Medolla, Italy's civil protection agency said.

The prosecutor's office in the province of Modena, where the quake was centered, opened an investigation Wednesday into the cause of death of the quake victims, many of whom were factory workers.

Investigators will examine how the factories were built and why they couldn't withstand an earthquake of Tuesday's magnitude.

Modena's chief prosecutor, Vito Zincani, told CNN that as modern buildings, they should have remained standing.

Most of the modern structures in the area were not damaged, he said, so the fact that some factories collapsed "shows an anomaly that needs investigation."

Look at high-resolution images of the disaster

The earthquake, which forced thousands of people from their homes, came nine days after a 6.0-magnitude quake struck the same region, killing seven people.

Tuesday's quake, which struck at about 9 a .m. local when many people had begun work, was followed by dozens of aftershocks. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded one of 5.6 magnitude.

Italian ministers met Wednesday morning and decided on several measures to be taken in the aftermath of the quake.

The government declared a state of emergency in the quake area and set June 4 as a national day of mourning, according to a press statement. An extra two-cent tax will also be added to gasoline to help finance the recovery effort, it said.

Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano, Prime Minister Mario Monti and the speakers of both Italian houses of parliament on the earthquake met later Wednesday at the presidential palace in Rome to discuss the disaster.

The towns of Mirandola and Cavezzo, northwest of the city of Bologna, were closest to the epicenter, civil protection authorities said.

Witnesses reported on Twitter that Cavezzo was about 70% destroyed. Pictures purportedly from the town, as well as a video stream from Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, show damaged and destroyed buildings.

Churches and historic structures were among the affected buildings.

In the small town of Novi di Modena, a 65-year-old priest died inside his church as he tried to save its statue of the Madonna.

Construction workers who were out surveying the damage in Medolla were emotional as they spoke of their experiences a day earlier.

Mohmammed Mouhalhal told CNN he was at work when the earthquake struck. He and his fellow construction workers now fear for their jobs and their safety, he said.

He said no one could sleep Tuesday night and they stayed outside for fear of further quakes.

Some 50 tremors were felt in the area overnight.

Italian authorities are still assessing the economic impact of the earthquakes on the region, which lies in northern Italy, the heartland of the country's manufacturing industry.

Leaders of agricultural and industrial organizations, speaking to Italian media, have estimated the cost of the disaster at nearly one billion euros.

The Italian daily newspaper Repubblica puts the damage to the biomedical industry in Medolla alone at about €600 million ($751 million).

Many cheese makers are also among those affected.

Stefano Berni, president of the consortium that makes Grana Padano, a hard cheese similar to Parmesan, told CNN that some 350,000 whole cheeses, each weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds), had been shaken to the ground. No more than 40% of those are likely to be salvageable, he said, leading to estimated losses of €70 million ($88 million).

About 600 cheese producers located in the area north of the earthquake epicenter have suffered damage to their production centers and warehouses, he said. About 50,000 families, including the milk producers and cheese makers, work for the industry.

Other factories and warehouses that have not been damaged by the quake will still suffer losses because they have had to halt production for safety checks.

Geophysicist Antonio Piersanti, of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, told Corriere della Sera that it was possible more earthquakes could follow in the coming weeks.

The last significant earthquake in this area was in 1571. It was followed by about four years of aftershocks.