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Page last updated at 11:34 GMT, Monday, 6 April 2009 12:34 UK
Eyewitnesses: Italy earthquake



A powerful earthquake has struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila, killing dozens of people. Here witnesses describe what happened.



RESIDENT IDA SPAGNOLI, SPEAKING TO THE BBC
"I was in my living room on the couch, sleeping, when I heard the first sounds, the first tremors coming at 11 o'clock, and it was quite frightening.

Then I fell asleep and all of a sudden I was on the floor and the walls around me were caving in. I couldn't see anything it was just dust, cement - the smell of cement the smell of dust all over and then when it finally cleared I saw the streets and all I had was a metre of floor between me and the street...

I had three young boys help me and we were just going over rubble and it was unsteady and we all went in to the middle of this small piazza.
But all you saw when you were standing in the piazza was the facades of buildings but then behind there was nothing. The entire centre of the buildings had just caved in."


JOURNALIST VITTORIO PERFETTO, IN IL CENTRO NEWSPAPER
"This morning we were woken by an extremely powerful earthquake, by the collapse, everything was collapsing around us, furniture, everything...

We ran down the stairs with everything falling around us. My son is 15 and my daughter 24, they were both in their rooms. The stairs were blocked with the furniture that had fallen.

We had to escape quickly, without our shoes on. When we got downstairs it was already covered with rubble.

It was a miracle. Then when we got out onto the street we were hurrying, there's a courtyard on one side and we were scared that [the building] would fall on us.

Then when we were out in the street there was another very strong quake and we risked being hit by things falling from the roof, by bricks, everything was falling.

We managed to run for 50 or 60m miraculously among all the falling debris.

Then we gathered in a little piazza, there were other people too, in front of a church from which all of the top part of the facade had collapsed.

The same half of another church nearby from the 13th or 14th Century had also come down.

Next to my house a family remained underneath [the rubble]. We don't know what's happened. The firemen are there but they haven't given any sign of life… there were three women but they won't make it, there was too much rubble and even the firemen weren't able to get in."




GUIDO MARIANI, IN LA REPUBBLICA NEWSPAPER
"I was left for three hours under the rubble. I wasn't able to free myself.

Luckily two beams prevented the wall from collapsing around me.

The rescue teams arrived after more than three hours. This is a city that is full of barracks but it was citizens who pulled me out with their bare hands.

I was shouting for help. I could hear my mobile phone ringing but I could not get to it.

Finally there was a small opening, hands reached out, they grabbed me and I got out.

In the block where I live there were about 20 flats. I don't know how many people are still there underneath."


ANNA-MARIA SPENNATI, SPEAKING TO THE BBC
"The whole house just moved.

I live in an apartment and by the time I got out of bed the stairwell had collapsed so we had problems getting out and you can imagine the total panic…

There's a lot of old buildings here and I think they're the ones that got damaged the most…

We can't get to the centre of the city. We're just sitting in the car and waiting... just waiting because the tremors keep coming every half an hour."