An 8-year-old girl died protecting her younger sister from an avalanche of rubble that covered their tiny bodies during the catastrophic earthquake in Italy.
The younger sister, who is 4, emerged uninjured after she was buried by debris from her family’s vacation home in Pescara del Tronto, where a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck early Wednesday and decimated the town in central Italy.
The girl’s sister wasn’t so lucky.
Giulia Renaldo’s limp body, which she used to shield her sister, was pulled from the wreckage as their grandmother wept.
“Giulia died saving her sister. She lay on top of her. That is the only reason she is alive. I am told she has no injuries and that is the only explanation for that,” Angela Cafini told The Daily Mail.
The 64-year-old grandma said the younger girl, named Giorgia, was recovering in the hospital.
“It is a miracle she is alive, but I am torn,” she said. “I have lost one granddaughter and one has lived.”
Cafini’s daughter and son-in-law, who were visiting her from Rome for a weeklong vacation, both suffered minor injuries.
The quake, which affected multiple villages, killed at least 250 people. Emergency crews were still wading through the wreckage Thursday in hopes of finding more survivors.
Rescuers refused to say when their work would shift from saving lives to recovering bodies, noting one person was pulled alive from the rubble 72 hours after the 2009 quake in the Italian town of L’Aquila.
“We will work relentlessly until the last person is found,” said Lorenzo Botti
