For half an hour the men kept digging. They passed water down to be given to the animal. And eventually they worked it free, then emerged, carrying it to the surface. There was a ripple of applause in the crowd.
"It doesn't matter to us if it's a person or an animal, we save it," said Gianni Macerata, the fire officer in charge.
So the digging goes on. But so little is left of Pescara del Tronto it is unlikely that more survivors will be found here.
It seems unlikely too that this ancient little place, that has stood for centuries, can ever be rebuilt. Hundreds of years of history ended in an instant.
Read more from Damian
In another hard-hit village, Pescara del Tronto, a young girl was pulled alive from the rubble late on Wednesday after being trapped for 17 hours.
Rescuers say they still hope to find survivors, noting that one was pulled from ruins in L'Aquila in 2009 three days after an earthquake that killed more than 300 people.
Whole buildings have been flattened in the earthquake
Some rescuers have been using their bare hands to sift through debris
Search teams still hope to find survivors
Amatrice - one of the worst-hit areas - is a popular destination for holidaymakers
But an official with the fire department, Lorenzo Botti, admitted they were facing a race against time.
"The chances of finding people alive in these conditions, in this type of setting, well, it's challenging.
"We need to hope and we need to work and we need to believe there's someone out there alive who we can save."
Italy is vulnerable to earthquakes, sitting on two fault lines.
Some in the Italian press wondered why more had not been done to improve building standards in quake prone-areas.
"I have to say that the anger is stronger than the pain - the anger at the thought that this destruction could have been avoided," Dacia Maraini said in the Corriere Della Sera.
No comments:
Post a Comment