An earthquake takes a huge toll on the historic sites of the country
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| Half of a clock face on Modenesi's Towers of Finale Emilia, destroyed by the earthquake on Monday 20, 2012 in Ferrara, Italy |
A powerful earthquake shook Italy’s industrial and densely populated northeast, killing at least six people, felling homes and factories and toppling church steeples. Emergency services said dozens had been injured in the magnitude-6 quake, which struck in the middle of the night, sending thousands of pople running into the streets in towns and cities across the Emilia Romagna region. Emergency Workers were sifting thought the rubble of collapsed building for victims, hours after the quake and several aftershocks struck at 4L00 a.m. Four of the dead were night-shift workers in factories which collapsed including two who were crushed when the roof of a ceramics factory caved in the town of Sant Agostno.
A 37-year-old German woman and another woman aged over 100 were reported to have died from shock. The quake caused “significant damage” to historic building as it rattled the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua, the Culture Ministry said.
Italian television showed many historic building, including churches, reduced to heaps of rubble. Cars had been crushed under falling masonry, and the Civil Protections Agency had evacuated hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people to makeshift communal shelters n Finale Emilia and towns near the epicenter. The quake’s epicenter was the commune of Finale Emilia, 369-kilometer north of Bologna, at a depth of only 5.1 kilometers.
One of the men killed in the ceramics factory collapse, Nicola Cavicchi, 35, wanted to go the seaside but because of the bad weather forecast he decided to to work to replace a colleague who was sick”, a family member said.
A 29-year-old Moroccan man was killed by a falling girder when a factory building collapsed in the small town of Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno . The body of a fourth night-shift worker was found in the early afternoon under fallen masonry at a factory in a nearby village.
The quake was felt more than 100 kilometers away in Venice, where a Colombian family on holiday in the city said they had woken in panicle when the quake shook their apartment. In Finale Emilia, firefighters rescued a five-year-old girl who was trapped in the rubble of her house after a rapid series of phone calls between a local woman, a family friend who was in New York and emergency services.
Fallen Masonry littered the streets of many towns and cities, and many historic building had cracks and fissures. The region shaken by the quake is Italy’s industrial heartland but also home to priceless architectural and art treasures. The centre old Ferrara is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A 37-year-old German woman and another woman aged over 100 were reported to have died from shock. The quake caused “significant damage” to historic building as it rattled the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua, the Culture Ministry said.
Italian television showed many historic building, including churches, reduced to heaps of rubble. Cars had been crushed under falling masonry, and the Civil Protections Agency had evacuated hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people to makeshift communal shelters n Finale Emilia and towns near the epicenter. The quake’s epicenter was the commune of Finale Emilia, 369-kilometer north of Bologna, at a depth of only 5.1 kilometers.
One of the men killed in the ceramics factory collapse, Nicola Cavicchi, 35, wanted to go the seaside but because of the bad weather forecast he decided to to work to replace a colleague who was sick”, a family member said.
A 29-year-old Moroccan man was killed by a falling girder when a factory building collapsed in the small town of Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno . The body of a fourth night-shift worker was found in the early afternoon under fallen masonry at a factory in a nearby village.
The quake was felt more than 100 kilometers away in Venice, where a Colombian family on holiday in the city said they had woken in panicle when the quake shook their apartment. In Finale Emilia, firefighters rescued a five-year-old girl who was trapped in the rubble of her house after a rapid series of phone calls between a local woman, a family friend who was in New York and emergency services.
Fallen Masonry littered the streets of many towns and cities, and many historic building had cracks and fissures. The region shaken by the quake is Italy’s industrial heartland but also home to priceless architectural and art treasures. The centre old Ferrara is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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