July 31, 2010

Three dead and one injured after a building collapsed in southern Italy

Rome, July 31 - Three people have died and one was injured this morning after collapsing an apartment building in the town of Afragola Naples in southern Italy, which contributed, according to the first hypothesis, filtration of water from heavy rains the last few hours.

According to Italian media reports, the deceased are a young married couple of 29 and 33 years whose bodies were extracted embraced from the rubble shortly after 1030 local time (08.30 GMT), as well as a woman of 75 years, also neighboring two-storey building collapsed.

The only survivor of the tragedy is the granddaughter of the woman, a 10 year old girl who was sleeping with her grandmother last night and whose body was extracted alive from the rubble around 14:00 local time (12.00 GMT ), after being buried for about twelve hours.

The discovery of the girl in the rubble, which had been protected by an airbag formed after the collapse, was widely celebrated by neighbors, who included people who had to leave their homes at dawn to the risk of possible new landslides in the surrounding area.

At first there was talk even of seven missing, because during the last hours the Italian authorities tried to locate three immigrants from Morocco and Ghana are also neighbors of the building but were not sure who that could be at home at the time of collapse.

In fact, one of them got in touch and Saturday with the Police to confirm that they had spent the night outside the park.

Italian Firefighters worked for more than twelve hours, digging with their hands in the rubble and with the help of dogs, to get locate the missing after the collapse.

The landslide occurred around 0130 local time (2330 GMT Friday), may have been produced to give the structure due to major water leaks rains since last night in central and southern Italy, who were accompanied by strong gusts of wind.

The Minister of Civil Protection in the region of Campania, Edoardo Cosenza, told Italian media that even though the rain may have had something to do with the collapse of the building can not be the only cause.

"Buildings do not fall never flood. The buildings must be adequately controlled and maintained if we want to avoid tragedies like this," Cosenza said.

The building, dating from the 30s of the twentieth century had been recently renovated inside, according to the media.

In a press release, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Saturday sent its condolences to the families of the victims.

- Written By Geetha -

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