home Job What happened in Italy is several. New earthquakes in Sicily: Italy suffers from natural disasters

What happened in Italy is several. New earthquakes in Sicily: Italy suffers from natural disasters

The disaster hit the provinces of Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and Abruzzo. According to the latest data, 120 people were killed, and people may remain under the rubble. Entire streets have been destroyed, and it is still impossible to determine the number of missing people. More than a hundred were wounded.

The Russian President sent a telegram of condolences to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and offered assistance in eliminating the consequences of the natural disaster.

Red Cross helicopters are patrolling over the city of Amatrice, this is a good sign - it means that people are still being found and they need medical help.

There is still no understanding of how many died and injured. New numbers arrive every half hour. So far 120 people have died, but this is not final data.

The authorities are trying to improve life in the city. Food is delivered by vehicles. There are many rescue services and volunteers working here. Powerful generators should soon appear that will provide light to those places where the rubble is being cleared, because this work will continue all night.

Five kilometers from Amatrice the roads are blocked. Military personnel, doctors and church representatives are allowed through. There is only one road. And for Amatrice this is the road of life. Holy Father Gerald Abuachi helped the journalists get to the city. He is from L'Aquila, a city that was almost wiped off the face of the earth seven years ago. The priest woke up at night from tremors and, having read the alarming news, immediately got ready to go on the road.

The news now talks about the destroyed center of Amatrice, but they almost always forget to say that this town is surrounded by a large number of communes of 10-15 houses and half of them are also destroyed. The old town with its houses with tiled roofs and quiet streets is no more. Instead of them there are only fragments of houses and human destinies.

At regular intervals, the engines of bulldozers and excavators are turned off. Rescuers are trying to hear. Suddenly, someone under the thickness of brick and concrete will let you know: he is alive.

If you move the wrong stone, the delicate balance will be disrupted, and the woman will no longer be able to breathe. They tell her that help is close, hold on, and she, embarrassed, admits that she really wants to go to the toilet. As if this is the most important problem right now. And the engines roar again. Equipment is biting into what's left of the wall of someone's house.

In the distance, the camera captures how the stretcher is carefully passed from hand to hand along the chain. A minute later we hear the rumble of a Red Cross helicopter. Those who lost their homes, but miraculously survived, are nearby. They tell how they managed to survive.

The rescued man speaks, and then, choking with tears, hugs his loved ones, as if only now realizing how lucky he was, the moment when the walls collapsed, the exit was close.

“First I saw one wall collapsing, then another one collapsed. Then the ceiling began to fall, but I managed to escape,” says Maria Gianni.

“I saw the body of one deceased. I heard people screaming from under the rubble, asking for help. It’s terrible,” recalls Jean-Craleau.

People under the rubble. How many are there? No one knows how many are alive and how many are dead. Tens, hundreds? Several cities and towns are in ruins. Underground shocks shook several regions at once: Lazio, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo are now trying to recover from the nightmare.

First aid is provided to victims right on the street. Italians are being encouraged to donate blood en masse. Local residents of the hardest-hit towns of Accumolo and Amatrice are afraid to spend the night in buildings. Aftershocks continue. And during the day it shook violently again. The authorities of the affected cities are organizing tent cities. The military was also involved in eliminating the consequences of the earthquake. But it is impossible to help everyone at once. Due to blockages on the roads and damaged bridges, it took a long time for emergency services to reach the affected areas. People are scared and angry.

For residents of the Apennines, earthquakes are an inevitability that they have to put up with. Italy is in a zone of increased seismic activity and weak vibrations are constantly recorded. And every few years there are powerful impacts, such as today.

The last strong earthquake was just four years ago. In May 2012, tremors occurred in the Bologna area, which turned entire villages into ruins. Architectural monuments that had stood for centuries were destroyed. Italians remember the 2009 earthquake near the city of L'Aquila as much more terrible. The tragedy then claimed more than 300 lives, and one and a half thousand people were injured. The footage shows streets completely littered with rubble, palaces and cathedrals destroyed.

It is possible that foreigners could be among those killed that night. For example, in Akumoli, one of the worst-hit settlements, only 700 people live there, but according to authorities, there are now over two thousand there. Nobody knows the exact number. Some came to visit relatives, others just to admire the scenery and architecture. According to the Federal Tourism Agency, there are now several thousand of our compatriots in Italy. But, according to our diplomats, there are no Russians among the dead or injured. Moscow offered Rome assistance in eliminating the consequences of the earthquake. Our rescuers are ready to fly out at any moment.

In Italy today and tomorrow are days of mourning. The echoes of the earthquake were felt in the capital - Rome, as well as in Florence and Bologna. In the disaster area, underground vibrations continue, but not as strong as last night. Seismologists are monitoring the development of the situation and making predictions.

“Immediately an hour after the main shock, a second shock occurred with a slightly smaller magnitude, 5.5, and now this process is underway. At the current hour, the strongest events have occurred, with a magnitude greater than 4, about 8-10 events. And it is very good that the aftershock process is taking place, because it relieves the remaining stress in the focal area and, as it were, removes the physical reason for the occurrence of a new strong earthquake. I think that in Italy they will be observed within the first few days, this is absolutely certain, and maybe within several weeks,” explained Alexey Zavyalov, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

ROME, August 27 - RIA Novosti, Sergey Startsev. Several cases of violence against foreign tourists, which caused great public outcry, occurred in the second half of August at resorts in Italy, authorities report.

The latest incident was recorded last weekend in Rimini on the Adriatic coast. The victim of violence was a 19-year-old German woman, who the day before met two senior students from the police school in Brescia on vacation. On Saturday evening, they went into the hotel room of a new friend and abused her. The tourist was examined at a local hospital, where traces of violence were recorded on her body, wrote a statement to law enforcement agencies and urgently left for her homeland.

On the fact of rape, the Rimini prosecutor's office opened an investigative case, within the framework of which both young men were interrogated. In the coming days they may be expelled from the police school, and their future fate will be determined by the court. On Monday, the mayor's office of Rimini announced that as soon as all the circumstances of this emergency become clear, it will act as a plaintiff in this case.

Almost simultaneously, another case of sexual violence against a foreigner occurred in the Italian resort of Jesolo near Venice. There, a 15-year-old girl, whose citizenship was not disclosed, was raped right on the beach. On Saturday, the police managed to detain the criminal, who turned out to be a 25-year-old native of Senegal, who had previously been sentenced to deportation from Italy for a number of offenses.

The head of the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is known for his irreconcilable position towards illegal migrants, spoke out on this case. "After numerous problems with justice, he had to leave Italy, but since he has a daughter from an Italian, this worm cannot be expelled. This is madness!" — Salvini wrote in Twitter. He promised to prepare a decree according to which migrants who have committed murder, rape, theft or are involved in drug trafficking will be immediately expelled from national territory. In this regard, political opponents of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are wondering why he did not react in any way to the rape of a German tourist in Rimini by students of the police school under his jurisdiction.

The crime situation in Rimini remains not very favorable. Thus, on August 19, two young Italians, spending their vacation at one of the largest resorts in the country, were brutally beaten and robbed on the famous local embankment. The attack at night was carried out by a youth gang from Naples, three of whose members were soon detained by police. The youngest of the attackers turned out to be 15 years old. When detained, the criminals resisted the police and tried to intimidate them, citing influential acquaintances.

Exactly a year ago, on the night of August 26, an emergency occurred on one of the beaches of Rimini, which caused a great public outcry in the Apennines. Four members of a youth gang, the leader of which was a 20-year-old Congolese, then attacked a young couple from Poland who were vacationing on the Adriatic. They beat the man until he lost consciousness, and violated his wife. That same night, criminals raped a transsexual prostitute from Peru. This spring, the court sentenced the gang leader to 16 years in prison, and his three minor accomplices - two Moroccan brothers and a Nigerian - to nine years and eight months in prison each.

As for the crimes committed by local law enforcement against foreigners, the most notorious of them was the rape of two students from the United States in Florence. In September, two carabinieri prevented a fight at one of the city discos, after which they took the American women present in a company car to their home, where they raped them. Both carabinieri were dismissed from service, and the trial in this case will begin soon.

Several cases of violence against foreign tourists, which caused a great public outcry, occurred in the second half of August at resorts in Italy, authorities report.

Almost simultaneously, another case of sexual assault against a foreign woman occurred in the Italian resort of Jesolo near Venice. There, a 15-year-old girl, whose citizenship was not disclosed, was raped right on the beach. On Saturday, the police managed to detain the criminal, who turned out to be a 25-year-old native of Senegal, who had previously been sentenced by a court to deportation from Italy for a number of offenses.

The head of the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is known for his irreconcilable position towards illegal migrants, spoke out on this case. “After numerous problems with justice, he had to leave Italy, but since he has a daughter from an Italian, this worm cannot be expelled. This is madness!" - Salvini wrote on Twitter. He promised to prepare a decree according to which migrants who have committed murder, rape, theft or are involved in drug trafficking will be immediately expelled from national territory. In this regard, political opponents of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are wondering why he did not react in any way to the rape of a German tourist in Rimini by students of the police school under his jurisdiction.

The crime situation in Rimini remains not very favorable. Thus, on August 19, two young Italians, spending their vacation at one of the largest resorts in the country, were brutally beaten and robbed on the famous local embankment. The attack was carried out at night by a youth gang from Naples, three of whose members were soon detained by police. The youngest of the attackers turned out to be 15 years old. When detained, the criminals resisted the police and tried to intimidate them, citing influential acquaintances.

As for crimes committed by local law enforcement against foreigners, the most notorious of them was the rape of two students from the United States in Florence. In September, two carabinieri prevented a fight at one of the city discos, after which they took the American women present in a company car to their home, where they raped them. Both carabinieri were dismissed from service, and the trial in this case will begin soon.

Engineers explained the reasons for the collapse of the structure

The "apocalyptic" collapse of a road bridge in Genoa has shocked Italy. The concrete structure buried dozens of cars along with their drivers and passengers. But the worst thing is that the tragedy showed: many similar viaducts in the country can repeat the scenario of what happened in Genoa at any moment. Two years before the incident, Italian engineers warned that the collapsed Morandi Bridge was initially designed with errors. Expensive repairs were unable to withstand the corrosion of the concrete, which eventually could not withstand the load and crumbled. Similar structures in Italy need to be demolished and rebuilt in the near future, experts are sounding the alarm.

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Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini confirmed the deaths of 38 people, at least three of them were children. At the time of the collapse, there were about 30 cars on the bridge, including trucks. The former goalkeeper of the Italian football club Cagliari, Davide Capello, miraculously managed to survive. “I heard a dull sound and saw the road going down and my car along with it,” the ex-footballer shared with The Sun newspaper. “I flew down along with the bridge, I don’t even know how I managed to survive.” When I got out of the car, I immediately let the rescuers, then my family. It was shocking, just a miracle."

When the search and rescue operation at the crash site was almost completed, Italy began searching for those responsible. The official version of what happened has not yet been announced, but experts believe that the wear and tear of the viaduct’s concrete base and errors in its design are to blame.

The bad news is that after World War II, many bridges were built in Italy using the same technology. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti stressed that all such structures in the country “must undergo double inspection” in order to “prevent a repetition of the tragedy.” “Since the 1960s, Italy has not had serious inspections and repairs of the many bridges and viaducts designed during that time,” admitted Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli.

The Italian engineering portal Ingegneri.info two years ago criticized the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, named after its architect. The viaduct, commissioned in 1967, was designed by the Italian Riccardo Morandi. Similar bridges using reinforced concrete and supporting cables became his calling card.

According to Antonio Branchic, a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Genoa, whose commentary was quoted by Ingegneri.info, the “structural problems” of the Morandi Bridge have always posed a danger. “The structure was subject to serious corrosion due to the technology used in the construction,” Brančić emphasized, “But Morandi insisted on using the technology he patented, although it was never used after him and proved to be ineffective.”

According to the professor, the Morandi Viaduct began to cause headaches for engineers back in the last century. The designers misjudged the viscosity of concrete, which is why it began to quickly collapse. They tried to correct these errors by installing new support cables, but in the end even they could not help. Nevertheless, a lot of money was spent on maintaining the structure in working order. It would be more profitable to simply demolish and rebuild all such bridges, says Branchic.

And the possibility of demolishing the “Morandi Bridge” was indeed considered in 2009, reports The Telegraph. “Fifty years ago we were completely confident in reinforced concrete, we thought that it would last forever,” ex-director of the Italian Union of Architects Diego Zoppi shared with reporters. “Only now it has become clear that it lasts only a few decades.” Zoppi said that most of these bridges were built in the post-war era, when Italy, which was in ruins, needed fast and cheap construction technologies. “The buildings from the 1960s and 70s are in urgent need of renovation. During their construction, the risk of collapse was underestimated. And over time, this risk only increases,” Zoppi concluded.

One of the Russians injured in the collapse of an escalator in the metro is undergoing surgery in a Rome hospital.

According to the latest data, eight of our compatriots are in hospitals - all of them are football fans who were going to the CSKA match with the Italian Roma. What happened in the subway is like a scary movie - the escalator turned into a bloody meat grinder in a matter of seconds.

The escalator plummets down, picking up speed. Judging by the footage taken from a nearby slope, the situation instantly becomes deadly. In the terrible crush, someone manages to jump onto the dividing parapet. Those who remained have terrible fractures and leg injuries. Many can't even get up. It will become clear almost immediately that almost all of the victims are Russians. Flashing lights, police officers, ambulances.

There are quite a few of our compatriots in Rome on ordinary days. And this time there were especially many of them. More than half of the victims are fans of CSKA football who came to cheer for their team in a match against local Roma.

According to eyewitnesses, most were injured precisely because of the crush. It was rush hour at the Republic station, hundreds of people were descending into the metro. When it all started, the passengers, losing their balance, fell down and blocked the path to salvation for others.

“There were a lot of people jumping on top of each other.” A lot of people were crumpled because of this and that’s all. The escalator sped up and it turned out that the guys did not have time to get off the escalator and what happened was what happened,- said eyewitness Alexander.

Eyewitnesses say there were no ambulances for at least half an hour. All this time, passers-by provided first aid to the victims: they applied tourniquets from belts and homemade tires, and they themselves lifted the victims to the surface.

The area near the Respublika metro station was fenced off with red and white tape. Events developed as according to script. At about 7 o'clock an ambulance arrived here, then the police. The entire area was fenced off; not a single person was allowed in. But now the ribbons have been removed and you can freely walk to the metro.

Already at night it will become known that one of the passengers has a seriously injured leg. She was pinned between the twisted steps. Italian doctors did not even rule out amputation, but after the operation - which lasted almost until the morning - they changed their forecasts to more optimistic ones. In total, 15 Russians were injured and hospitalized in the Rome metro, according to the latest data.

One of the main hospitals in Rome. Dozens of injured fans were brought here. Among them are Russians and Italians. We are ready to help everyone. Doctors have already performed several operations.

Relatives of the two victims have already visited their loved ones. According to doctors, everyone who was injured will spend two to seven days in hospital. Some are now in serious condition. For example, doctors show what remains of the jacket in which one of the Russians rolled down the escalator.

Just a few minutes after the incident, the Italian press immediately announced the culprits. Allegedly, it was the Russian fans themselves who rocked the escalator. Even the mayor of the city picked up this version.

“At the moment, we have information that several people were dancing and jumping on the escalator. We still have to verify this information, but if so, then it definitely could have caused the accident. I express my solidarity with the wounded and wish them a speedy recovery. We are ready to provide them and their relatives with any necessary assistance,— said the mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi.

He is echoed by the head of the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Matteo Salvini. He called the Russians “pseudo-fans” who “created a mess there.” However, the local prosecutor's office did not agree with this version. They said that the problem was most likely in the escalator itself. The lifting mechanism may have been worn out for a long time and poorly maintained. Based on this fact, an inspection of the company that installed it has already begun.

When everything happened, hundreds of Russian fans were already at the stadium. They learned about what happened after the game and decided to support their acquaintances and friends, who in just a few seconds experienced real hell.