CASAMICCIOLA TERME, Italy —
Italy’s government declared a state of emergency
on Sunday after a landslide on the southern island of Ischia killed at least
one person and left a dozen missing.
اضافة اعلان
A wave of mud and
debris hit the small town of Casamicciola Terme early Saturday morning,
engulfing at least one house and sweeping cars down to the sea, local media and
emergency services said.
A first tranche of
2 million euros relief funds was released at the end of an emergency cabinet
meeting which declared the state of emergency, said Minister for Civil
Protection Nello Musumeci.
More than 200
rescuers are still searching for a dozen missing people, while hundreds of
volunteers, and others, up to their knees in mud, are busy cleaning the streets
of the town.
Wreckage of cars
and buses crushed by the mudslide could be seen and boulders were scattered
around as excavators sought to free up access to homes, cars and shops.
Rescuers had
recovered the body of a 31-year-old woman, according to Italian news agency
AGI.
“It’s a situation
that hurts us, if only for the people who disappeared under the mountain. Here
it’s an island and even if we don’t really know everyone, it’s almost that,”
Salvatore Lorini, 45, told AFP.
“The mountain came
down, there was devastation of shops, cars, hotels and that was already
happening nine years ago. Now I am cleaning my mother-in-law’s shop,” he said.
The landslide was
caused by a lack of maintenance and prevention “because nature is nature, there
was an earthquake, but a bit of prevention” could have saved lives, said
Lorini.
The peninsula, off
Naples, is no stranger to states of emergency following earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions or severe weather.
Casamicciola Terme,
a spa resort of 8,000 inhabitants in winter on the lush island of Ischia, near
Capri, was hit by an earthquake in 2017 that killed two people.
It was completely destroyed by a much more powerful earthquake
at the end of the 19th century.
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