EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 114, 16 January 1915, Page 5

EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY

MESSINA ECLIPSED * A TERRIBLE DEATH ROLL. EIGHTEEEN SMALL TOWNS RAZED TWENTY OTHERS DAMAGED DEATHS ESTIMATED AT 20,000 140 SCHOOL GIRLS ENTOMBED SOLDIERS TRYING TO SAVE THEM Press Associat ion—Copyright. ROME, Jan. 15 The stricken area was greater than Avas at first believed. Eighteen small towns in the neighbourhood of Lake Fucino, which was the centre the disturbance, were razed, and 20 damaged. It is estimated that 20,000 were killed in this reason and 40,000 injured. The faulty system of house construction by dry-building is the chief cause of the heavy death-roll. The only house standing a(- Avozzano has concrete foundations. Soldiers are working hard at the rescue of 140 schoolgirls. Cries have ceased, but it is hoped that many are alive. The King is supervising the work. The town presents a frightful appearance. Great blocks 0 f stone piled cne or another render rescue difficult. Two hundred dead and 160 injured .have been extricated. HEAVY MORTALITY. ROME, Jan. 15. The Pope has visited the injured at Santa Maria Hospital. The shock was more violent than the Messina one. The great marble cross cn the Basilica at St. Paul’s was thrown to the roadway. The glass roof fell in the Chamber of Deputies, burying the Ministers’ tables with wreckage. Many prosperous towns and holiday resorts are damaged. A train travelling, was derailed by the shock, and a number cf passenger? injured. An eye-witness relates that where ‘here had been towns he saw enormous whiirwinds of dust and smoke. Two-thirds of Sora are in ruins. The Rossi Palace collapsed and buried twenty.-Many local'authorities and notables are among the victims. Some 45.0 bodies have -been- recovered and many rescues have been made. A BIG LAND-SLIDE. ROME, Jan. 15. A section cf a mountain near Salerno, three thousand feet long and five hundred feel wdie, split 'off and crashed into the valley, destroying everything in its . path. There were many casualties. Every hotel at Fiuggi, near Rome, collapsed, or was damaged. As the season was past,-the casualties were few. Rivers in the vicinity rah back for two hours after the shock. AVALANCHES IN THE ALPS. GENEVA, Jan. 15. There was a’ severe earthquake shock in the Mount Blanc range, and many avalanches have occurred. Several villages are isolated. Slight shocks were felt in the Tyrol. A TERRIBLE DEATH ROLL. (Reed. 11.50 a.m.) ROME, Jan. 15. Half the town of Magliano dl Marsi was destroyed. Thirteen hundred people perished. Three parts of Pesciua was destroyed and. four thousand were found dead. Three thousand lost their lives at San Benedetto, by being buried in the ruins. All the .houses at Cappadocia are uninhabitable; the people are camping in the snow. Nothing remains of Albafuconsis, and it is believed the whole population perished. Out of nine hundred at Lapelle only thirty are alive. The King has gone to Sora, where there is little hope of rescuing the buried.