Emergency crews clawed through the rubble of a school knocked down by an earthquake during a Halloween party pulled out a boy alive and several bodies yesterday. At least 26 people were killed in the town, nearly all of them children in the school, firefighters said.
Earlier, the police headquarters of Campobasso, near the town of San Giuliano Di Puglia, said there had been a second boy found alive yesterday, nearly 24 hours after Thursday's struck, but later said their information was incorrect and that the last survivor was a 9-year-old boy pulled out before dawn.
State television said rescuers initially thought the child was only badly injured, but he was lifeless.
As hopes for finding anyone still alive were fading, rescuers used cranes, sledgehammers, blowtorches and their bare hands for possible survivors. At least two other children were believed still under the rubble.
Two strong aftershocks, with magnitudes of 3.5 and 3, rocked the town as rescuers worked feverishly.
The death toll had mounted quickly after midnight. Officials said Friday that 26 people had been confirmed dead -- 23 children inside the school, a teacher and two women in nearby homes.
One of the latest victims brought out was the teacher, a woman whose body was wrapped in a blanket and carried away to an ambulance.
A rescue worker, in hard hat and covered with dust, said most of the dead children were crushed at their desks as the roof crashed down upon them.
"A huge tragedy leaves us with only one certainty. It looks like the first grade class was wiped out," said a local priest, the Rev. Ferdinando Manna.
The school complex had nursery, elementary and middle school students.
At dawn, emergency crews halted work for a few minutes in a bid to hear any sounds under the rubble, but there was silence. A 9-year-old boy identified only as Angelo was rescued at 3:54am, the last person brought out alive.
"We are still clinging to any thread of hope," national fire chief Mario Morcone told reporters at the site.
Pope John Paul II, appearing at his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, expressed his "spiritual closeness" for those suffering from the quake and offered prayers for the victims and encouragement to survivors and the rescue crews digging at the scene.
The bodies of the dead were being housed in a makeshift morgue at the town's sports center, where family members came to identify the dead, police officials outside the center said.
The 5.4-magnitude quake hit the Campobasso area northeast of Naples in the Molise region at 11:33am Thursday.
San Giuliano di Puglia, a village of about 1,195 people, was the hardest hit, with several buildings damaged. The ANSA news agency said 3,000 people in the region were left homeless, unable or unwilling to sleep in their damaged homes.
The yellow nursery school in San Giuliano di Puglia collapsed entirely on itself, trapping 56 children, their teachers and two janitors inside as they celebrated Halloween, an American import becoming increasingly popular in Italy.
Anguished parents kept a vigil outside the wreckage, bundled in blankets to guard against the evening chill, with temperatures around 11?C.
Applause burst from the tense crowd after one difficult rescue late Thursday. Residents cried, "Giovanni! Giovanni!" when the little boy was brought out on a stretcher.
"As soon as he came out he called me 'Papi' like he always does," the boy's father told RAI state television, which did not give the man's name.
"I immediately saw he was in good condition. He told me there are many other children still alive, a little shocked but still alive, so the hope is still there that they can save more."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique