A powerful 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked central Italy early Wednesday, killing at least 267 people and reducing at least three towns to rubble, as homes collapsed on sleeping residents.
The temblor, which struck at 3:36 a.m. local time, was centered about 5.5 miles below the ground about 10 miles from the town of Norcia in the lush central province of Umbria. The shallow depth contributed to the power of the quake, which carved a wide swath of devastation and was felt as far away as Rome and the Adriatic coast, officials said.
“We came out to the piazza — and it looked like ‘Dante’s Inferno,’” said Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting the tiny village of Illica near hard-hit Accumoli, about 80 miles northeast of Rome.
The death toll stood at 159 on Wednesday evening, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Department, while hundreds were reported injured.
“At moments of trouble Italy knows how to cope. No family, no city, no hamlet will be left alone,” said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who visited the devastated town of Amatrice.
“The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, where at least 35 people perished. “What can I tell you? It’s a tragedy.”
Also hard hit was Arquata del Tronto, where 18-month-old Marisol Piermarini was killed in her crib when the house her parents, Martina and Massimiliano, were vacationing in collapsed, the Daily Mail reported.
The tragic infant’s grandfather, Massimo Piermarini, told Italian news agency Ansa that he tried to save his family.
“They did not want me to go in because it was all in danger, but I said that I did not care at all, I had to go looking for them, but unfortunately for the girl there was nothing to do,” he said.
Some of the worse damage occurred in the nearby hamlet of Pescara del Tronto, where bodies were placed in a children’s park.
In Accumoli, a weeping Mayor Stefano Petrucci told Italian broadcaster RAI: “Four people are under the rubble, but they are not showing any sign of life. Two parents and two children.”
The family — Andrea Tuccio, his wife Graziella and sons Riccardo and Stefano – did not survive after their home was struck by the recently restored bell tower of Accumoli’s church, The Local reported.
The grandmother of the boys – aged 8 months and 9 years – wailed and blamed God as rescuers removed one of the bodies.
“He took them all at once!” she shouted.
Guido Bordo, a resident of Illica, said his sister and her husband were buried under rubble.
“We’re waiting for diggers but they can’t get up here,” Bordo, 69, told Agence France-Presse. “There’s no sound from them, we only heard their cats. They managed to pull my sister’s children out, they’re in hospital now.”
Haunting photos from the scene showed dazed and bloodied residents cowering from the dozens of aftershocks – some as strong as 5.1 – that followed the main quake.
In Amatrice – an idyllic town of 2,700 famed for its gastronomy — the Rev. Fabio Gammarota, said he had blessed seven bodies. “One was a friend of mine,” he said.
The town was due to have its annual two-day festival this weekend to honor its namesake dish — spaghetti all’amatriciana, pasta with cured pork jowl, pecorino cheese and tomato.
Restaurants across Italy were asked to donate money from sales of the famous dish to the Red Cross to help victims, The Local reported.
“It’s all young people here, it’s holiday season, the town festival was to have been held the day after tomorrow so lots of people came for that,” said Giancarlo, a resident who sat in the road wearing just his underwear.
“It’s terrible, I’m 65 years old and I have never experienced anything like this, small tremors, yes, but nothing this big. This is a catastrophe,” he told Reuters.
Authorities placed 14 bodies at a residential courtyard and 21 more at a local school, La Repubblica reported. The 15 patients from the town’s small hospital were moved into a piazza because it crumbled.
In a poignant moment during rescue efforts, a ranger in Capodacqua, in the Marche province of Ascoli Piceno, tried to keep a trapped 80-year-old woman calm as she begged to get to a toilet.
“Listen, I know it’s not nice to say but if you need to pee you just do it,” he told her. “Now I move away a little bit and you do pee, please.”
Speaking in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said: “I cannot but express my great pain and say I am with the people in all the places stricken by this earthquake.”
“To hear the mayor of Amatrice say his village no longer exists and knowing that there are children among the victims, is very upsetting for me,” he added.
The devastated region was just north of L’Aquila, the city where a 6.3-magnitude quake killed more than 300 people and injured more than 1,000 in April 2009.
The Italian geological service put the magnitude of Wednesday’s quake at 6.0; the US Geological Survey reported it as 6.2.
“I don’t know what to say. We are living this immense tragedy,” said the Rev. Savino D’Amelio, a parish priest in Amatrice. “We are only hoping there will be the least number of victims possible and that we all have the courage to move on.”
With Post wires