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Last child saved after quake hits Italian island
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Italian emergency workers evacuate, on a stretcher, Mattias, a 7 year-old boy who was trapped by rubble, in Casamicciola Terme, on the Italian island of Ischia, on August 22, 2017, after an earthquake hit the popular Italian tourist island off the coast of Naples, causing several buildings to collapse overnight. Rescuers on the Italian holiday island of Ischia were racing on August 22, 2017 to save the last child trapped by rubble after a magnitude-4.0 earthquake toppled buildings and left two people dead. Firefighters were digging with their bare hands to pull Ciro, the last of three brothers buried in the debris, about 13 hours after the quake struck. (Agence France -Presse/Eliano Empirato)
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escuers on the Italian holiday island of Ischia pulled the last trapped child from rubble Tuesday after a magnitude-4.0 earthquake toppled buildings and left two people dead.
Firefighters dug with their bare hands to reach 11-year old Ciro, the last of three brothers buried in debris when the quake struck.
"There was silence for a while, they were tired. Then they began speaking again and we drew comfort from that," said Luca Cari, a firefighter spokesman.
A woman was killed in Casamicciola, in the north of the small tourist island, by debris that fell from a church, while the body of another was spotted in the rubble of a collapsed house, local media reported.
Firefighters broke into applause as a dusty Mattias, seven, was pulled free from under the bed where he had taken refuge. His 11-year old brother Ciro was the last to emerge, rescued after 16 hours in the dark and loaded into a waiting ambulance.
The boys' father, whose hands were bandaged after spending the night digging through the rubble alongside the firefighters, could be seen tearfully hugging relatives as his eldest son was saved.
Emergency workers had previously recovered the boys' seven-month-old brother, Pasquale, crying but alive, after hours of effort overnight. Their pregnant mother had sounded the alarm.
Two small communes, Casamicciola and neighbouring Lacco Ameno, bore the brunt of the quake, according to the civil protection agency.
The quake hit the northwest of the island at 8:57pm (1857 GMT) on Monday, at a depth of just five kilometres (three miles).
Italian authorities first put the quake at a 3.6 magnitude, but later revised it upward to 4.0 -- in seismic terms, a modest event.
