AMATRICE, Italy — Rescue crews using bulldozers and their bare hands raced to dig out survivors from a strong earthquake that reduced three central Italian towns to rubble Wednesday. “The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of the hardest-hit town, Amatrice. Dozens of people were pulled out alive by rescue teams and volunteers that poured in from around Italy. In the evening, about 17 hours after the quake struck, firefighters pulled a 10-year-old girl alive from the rubble in Pescara del Tronto. The medieval centre of Amatrice was devastated, with the hardest-hit half of the city cut off by rescue crews digging by hand to get to trapped residents.

Source: National Post August 25, 2016 02:37 UTC