PM - Monday, 6 April , 2009 18:18:00
Reporter: Emma Alberici
LISA MILLAR: The death toll is still rising in the Italian town of L'Aquila, north of Rome, after a powerful earthquake struck in the early hours of the morning there.
Houses, churches and other buildings have collapsed in the 13th century mountain city and dozens have died
I'm joined by our Europe correspondent Emma Alberici.
Emma can you tell me, what is the latest from there?
EMMA ALBERICI: I can tell you Lisa that the quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. It happened about 3:30am local time, so the worst possible time because people were in their homes asleep in their beds.
They're saying the depth of the quake went to 10 kilometres and the location of it exactly, if you look at a map of Italy, it's kind of smack bang in the centre, about 100 kilometres north of Rome, about an hour-and-a-half's drive from Rome.
Now the other thing I have to say is that quakes are more common in the south of Italy, so it is really shocking people that it has occurred where it has.
LISA MILLAR: And this is quite a historic city by all accounts?
EMMA ALBERICI: Yes, as you mentioned it's a 13th century medieval village known for its Renaissance buildings and churches. In fact the cathedral in Duomo, built in the 13th century, collapsed in 1703 because of an earthquake and was only just rebuilt in the 19th century.
So, I haven't been able to establish whether that's been affected by this particular quake, although the reports are that many of the ancient buildings have indeed collapsed and there are certainly, looking at the pictures, massive, massive cracks in many of the ones that are still standing.
LISA MILLAR: Would that be creating more difficulties then for the rescuers?
EMMA ALBERICI: Indeed, because this town, and it's not quite in L'Aquila, it's about, various reports were saying the epicentre was seven to 10 kilometres north of L'Aquila but in that general region, it's in a valley so it's surrounded by the Apennine mountains and it's quite a well known tourist destination, people go there to hike and to ski in those surrounding mountains.
So, really it's incredibly vulnerable because when, when a quake strikes there, as you can imagine, being in a valley, everything sort of toppling into the valley makes it very difficult terrain to get to for rescue workers and it makes the impact much worse because these, you know once these structures collapse it's sort of almost like a big mound that's just toppling on itself.
LISA MILLAR: But as you say it's not an area that appears vulnerable to quakes, that they appear to occur more in the south of Italy, so people would not have been prepared for this at all I imagine.
EMMA ALBERICI: No not at all. And, and from the accounts I've been listening to of the people there, they were absolutely in shock.
They say that indeed as far south as Rome they felt... sorry as south as Rome, that 100 kilometres or so away, they were woken in Rome because of the effect of this quake and the severity of it. But, yes, as you rightly say they weren't prepared for it.
The population of L'Aquila is about 70,000, 73,000 but on any given day there are about 100,000 people there because it's a university town and so lots of people studying there.
And from reports I was just hearing that one of the worst affected areas is where the students actually live, the sort of, you know, the university campuses if you like. And so many of the injured and dead are actually students, which has hit the town really hard.
LISA MILLAR: And as you say of course it happened in the early hours of the morning there so most people would have been sleeping. I imagine we'll learn more as the day goes on but what's been the initial response from the Italian leadership?
EMMA ALBERICI: Well Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, was about to hop on a flight to Moscow this morning for a meeting with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev. He's called that off and has instead made his way to L'Aquila; he hasn't quite arrived yet but the Government has called a state of emergency.
I have to mention also that reports just coming in say that the scene in the hospital, in the main hospital in L'Aquila is 'chaotic' to quote the Italian press. Not least because there's quite a massive crack through the front wall of the hospital and many are fearful that the hospital itself might collapse before the day's end.
So these are really quite chaotic scenes and quite a lot of desperation in that area.
LISA MILLAR: Emma Alberici thanks very much.