Death toll rises to at least 73 in Italy earthquake
Stefano Pitrelli and Anthony Faiola
AMATRICE, Italy — Rescue workers scrambled to reach survivors buried under rubble in isolated towns and villages across central Italy on Wednesday after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake and a series of strong aftershocks struck the region overnight, collapsing homes, rattling buildings as far away as Rome and Venice and leaving an escalating toll of dead and injured.
At least 73 people were killed in the mountainous heart of the country and more than 100 were missing, according to Italy's Civil Protection Department. It earlier called the death toll a “temporary number” that may yet climb.
“No family or village or town will be left alone,” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said in a national address. Saying Italy would vigorously accelerate the ongoing rescue effort, he added, “we will continue to find people alive.”
In the worst-hit towns including Amatrice — famed as the birthplace of the classic amatriciana pasta sauce — rescue workers and local residents desperately clawed through rubble to save buried victims amid a scene of widespread devastation. Several survivors, including a small girl, were plucked alive from heaps of debris. Hospitals in the impacted areas were fast filling up with injured people. Thousands of residents were left homeless.
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