Sunday,
May 07,
Friuli, May 7, 1976: Italy’s Worst Earthquake: 1,000 Dead,
2400 Injured, 80,000 Homeless
The
ANNOTICO Reports
BBC.NEWS
May
7, 1976
1976:
More bodies found after
At least 1,000 people were injured when the quake
struck the northern region of
A government spokesman said as many as 1,000 may
have been killed. It is likely the death toll will rise as rescue workers find
more bodies under the rubble of fallen buildings.
The local military and Red Cross are on the scene.
They are due to be joined by rescue workers from
Officials from the affected towns are appealing
for medicine and emergency lights for hospitals. American army units in the
area have flown in equipment and medical staff by helicopter and flown out the
injured.
Moved to tears
President Giovanni Leone and the Interior
Minister, Francesco Cossiga, visited the earthquake
zone by helicopter. They were moved to tears when they spoke to the injured at
a hospital in the small town of
The hill town of
Inmates of the town's prison tried to scale the
walls in their panic to get out but were beaten back by machine-gun fire.
This last quake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter
scale, was by far the strongest of the 23 tremors which began on the night of 5
May. It could be felt in
Most of the 180,000 people who live in the
The Italian tourist office in
The Queen has sent a message of sympathy to the Italian Government.
In Context:
The
following 12 months saw hundreds more tremors in the region, the largest of
which struck in September.
Altogether, the May and September quakes killed
951 people, injured 2,400 and left 45,000 homeless. Damage was estimated at Ј3,000m.
The Italian government came under strong criticism
for allowing red tape to hamper reconstruction of the area.
When Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti
visited the region in September, he was greeted with angry protests from
refugees who had been living in tents for four months.
Tent cities were - eventually - replaced with
20,000 prefabricated houses.
Using donations from the European Community, the
government had spent Ј250m by the end of 1976 to rebuild the
infrastructure of the region and rehouse its
inhabitants.
Northern and central
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