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EARTHQUAKES

Prince Charles to meet Italy quake survivors

Britain's Prince Charles is set to visit the quake-hit Italian town of Amatrice on Sunday as part of a European tour designed to shore up relations with EU allies post Brexit.

Published: 2 April 2017 10:44 CEST
Prince Charles to meet Italy quake survivors
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, with the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella when they arrived on March 31 for a six-day visit in Italy. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP
The Prince of Wales is expected to tour the historic town in central Italy and speak with survivors of last year's quake that killed nearly 300 people, and meet some of those helping with reconstruction efforts.
 
He will enter the abandoned “red zone” where collapsed houses lie next to the ruins of a 13th century Civic Tower, one of dozens of architectural gems in the region damaged by the August 2016 quake.
 
The prince is also scheduled to visit a Save the Children pavilion.
 
Charles, 68, who will succeed his mother Queen Elizabeth II on her death, is on a European tour with his wife Camilla which started in Romania and ends in Austria on Wednesday.
 
The charm offensive comes just as Britain this week officially triggered the Brexit process, becoming the first country to leave the European Union in the bloc's 60-year history.
 
Charles's son Prince William and his wife Kate undertook a similar trip to Paris earlier this month.
 
'Renaissance man'
 
The six-day Italian tour began Friday with a romantic stroll over Florence's mediaeval Ponte Vecchio bridge at sundown.
 
On Saturday, the prince paid homage to the victims of World War I in Vicenza, while Camilla, 69, visited “La Gloriette”, a pool-side villa overlooking the Gulf of Naples confiscated from a mafioso nicknamed “the madman” and now home to a project for youths suffering from mental illness.
 
While Charles is in Amatrice, Camilla will visit the Arcobaleno association in Florence which helps female victims of human trafficking — a hot issue in Italy during a time when the country is rescuing hundreds of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean, including vulnerable women.
 
The royals will be back in the Tuscan capital Monday to attend a reception hosted by the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation to mark the 100th anniversary of the British Institute of Florence, where Charles will be honoured as the “Renaissance Man of the Year”.
 
The heir to the throne and the Duchess of Cornwall will meet Pope Francis and enjoy a tour of the Vatican the following day.
 
The visit to the hilltop beauty spot of Amatrice will not be the prince's first to a quake-hit zone. In 2004, Charles travelled to the scene of an earthquake that devastated the ancient Iranian city of Bam, killing over 40,000 people.
 
In 2006, he and Camilla visited Kashmir, where a quake claimed the lives of more than 73,000 people and displaced 3.5 million.
 
After the Amatrice disaster, Queen Elizabeth made a personal donation to help re-house the homeless and restore damaged churches.
 
On Saturday, protesters gathered in the region and in front of parliament in Rome to demand that the government speed up the construction of new quake-proof houses and help local farmers and businesses get back on their feet.
 
The town's mayor Sergio Pirozzi announced this weekend that the German government and a series of German companies would be paying for the reconstruction of the town's damaged hospital.
 
Before the quake, Amatrice was best known as the home of amatriciana, one of Italy's favourite pasta sauces.
 
 
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EARTHQUAKES

Italy’s southern Calabria region rocked by strong 5.0 earthquake

A 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck Italy's southern region of Calabria on Thursday evening, causing no immediate damage but leaving residents shaken.

Published: 2 August 2024 08:48 CEST
Italy's southern Calabria region rocked by strong 5.0 earthquake

The quake hit at 9.43pm local time and had its epicentre three kilometres west of Pietrapaola, in the province of Cosenza, close to the Ionian Sea coastline, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

Local authorities said there had been no immediate reports of damage or calls for help, but checks from Italy’s Civil Protection and fire brigades were ongoing on Friday morning.

The quake was felt distinctly across the entire Calabria region, but some social media users reported feeling it as far away as Bari, Puglia, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) to the north, according to AFP.

Pietrapaola Mayor Manuela Labonia told RaiNews 24 on Thursday evening that residents felt “other tremors, less strong ones” after the first quake and were “all in the streets”.

Two other tremors, of 2.3- and 3.1-magnitude respectively, were recorded following the 5.0 quake, according to RaiNews.

Many residents chose to spend the night outside their homes, with some sleeping in their cars and others setting up tents in their gardens, reports said.

The head of INGV, Carlo Doglioni, told RaiNews 24 there had been various tremors in the area in recent days, and the agency kept monitoring the situation.

Strong quakes are not new to the area. In December 1908, a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake with epicentre in the Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from Calabria, almost completely destroyed the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria, killing some 80,000 people.

More recently, in January 2022, a 4.3-magnitude quake shook the region, causing schools and public offices to be evacuated and halting rail services for hours on end.

No serious injury or damage was reported on that occasion.

Italy is among the most earthquake-prone countries in Europe as the Italian peninsula lies right where the African tectonic plate converges with the Eurasian plate, meaning that the country is “seismic in its entirety”, according to the country’s Civil Protection Department.

READ ALSO: Which parts of Italy have the highest risk of earthquakes?

Italy has been hit by more than 30,000 medium to strong earthquakes over the past 2,500 years, and seven earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.5 or more in the 20th century alone.

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