Around 100 firefighters accompanied 50 sniffer dogs continued the search for survivors in Amatrice on Thursday morning, writes the Guardian’s correspondent in the town, Oscar Lopez.
“The situation is still very dangerous,” said Lorenzo Boti, 59, who arrived from Rome yesterday evening. He reckoned about 15 survivors had been found alive overnight, including children. “There are no words when that happens. It’s an emotional feeling inside; it makes you feel alive.”
But Boti added: “I don’t like to count the number of dead bodies. There are so many children.” Boti’s team recovered the body of a toddler this morning and he said there would certainly be more to come.
“Many of these buildings are still very unstable,” Boti said. “The problem here is there are many different kinds of construction. The buildings in the old centre are medieval - they’re the most likely to fall.”
Cristobal Rodriguez, from a Spanish rescue organisation, arrived last night from Malaga with his dog Lula. His group went first to Accumoli but then left for the harder-hit Amatrice.
“Only 20% of that town was affected. Here it’s much worse,” he said. “Still, we are hopeful of finding more survivors.”
His colleague, Juan Manuel La Cueva, with his dog Blackie, are veterans of the rescue efforts of natural disasters in Haiti, the Philippines and Turkey.
Asked how the quake compared to other tragedies, he said: “It’s hard, it’s tragic. For Europe, this is very dramatic.
But he was convinced more survivors would be found, adding that dogs were only useful for about the first three days, as few victims can survive longer than that without water. “We will find them,” he said. “We’ll sleep when we’re back in Spain.”
A dog inspects a collapsed building during a search and rescue operation in Amatrice Photograph: Massimo Percossi/EPA
Italy’s civil protection agency said it was trying to determine how many people were staying in the Hotel Roma, Amatrice’s best-known accommodation, when it collapsed.
It had been feared that 70 people were in the hotel.
Pirozzi met prime minister Matteo Renzi on his visit to area on Wednesday. He said food had been dispatched to the town, but the relief and reconstruction effort needed money.
Italian premier Matteo Renzi talks to the mayor of Amatrice Sergio Pirozzi on a visit to the earthquake-hit town. Photograph: TIBERIO BARCHIELLI / CHIGI PALACE / HANDOUT/EPA
A nun checks her mobile phone following the earthquake in Amatrice as she sat next to a victim of the earthquake covered in a blanket. Photograph: Massimo Percossi/AP
The BBC did not mention whether the Sister Mariana it talked to was the same nun in the photograph, but she looks very similar. She also has a bandage over her eye in the same spot seen bleeding on the image of the wounded nun. Speaking in English she told the BBC’s James Reynolds: “When I realised what happened, I tried to hide myself underneath the bed, and then I went to ask help but no one heard me.”
The Spanish news agency EFE also spoke to a Sister Mariana. It said she is an Albanian nun who was working at the local nursing home in Amatrice. She said she was woken up by the tremors and immediately got dressed and hid under her bed.
More accounts have emerged of how a 10-year-old girl was pulled from the remains of her destroyed home in Pescara del Tronto after more than 17 hours under the rubble.
According to AP, one rescue worker was heard to shout: “You can hear something under here. Quiet, quiet.” He then said: “Come on, Giulia, come on, Giulia.”
Here’s a summary of how things currently stand almost 30 hours after the earthquake struck.
Italy’s civil protection agency said the death toll from the earthquake has risen sharply to 247 people from an overnight total of 159. A further 368 people are bring treated in hospital for injuries.
Officials said the death toll is likely to rise further. The number of people killed could yet surpass the last major earthquake to strike Italy in L’Aquilla in 2009 when more than 300 people were killed.
Rescue teams have begun a second day of trying to find survivors under the rubble after many worked through the night searching for signs of life. Overnight a 10-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble after being buried for more than 17 hours in the hill town of Pescara del Tronto.
Two power aftershocks, registered at magnitudes 5.1 and 5.4, hampered rescue efforts.
An appeal for blood donations has prompted many Italians to queue outside blood transfusion centres.
Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, said his Cabinet would meet on Thursday to decide measures to help the affected communities. “Today is a day for tears, tomorrow we can talk of reconstruction,” he told reporters late on Wednesday.
Italians have been queuing up to give blood after an appeal by health authorities and the Italian Red Cross.
Would be donors from across Italy were urged to “plan their donation by contacting their local transfusion service” to avoid shortages, according to the Ansa press agency.
The Lazio region thanked 200 people lining up to give blood just after dawn at the Umberto I hospital in Rome.
