Death toll rises in deadly Italian quake

Dozens are believed trapped in ruined Amatrice, Accumoli, Pescara del Tronto , in mountainous central Italy. Due to magnitude of the quake and a feel of subsequently resurfacing in the midst of rescue operations, rescuers have  advised both local and international journalist to as a matter of urgency leave the town of Amatrice as the town is crumbling fast in ruins.  Rescuers still searching for trapped bodies and survivors says they have successfully pulled out five bodies from the ruins of the Hotel Roma in Amatrice. The search for survivors went all through the night, amid hundreds of tremor and an aftershocks which rocked already damaged buildings.

As many as 70 tourist were staying at the Hotel when the quake struck. Though many are feared dead at an instant or due to lack of ventilation for breathing air, others are still struck in the rubble while several others who had been successfully pulled out so far, had been taken up for medical attention.

Reports indicates that many of those affected in that region were mostly Italians who were holidaying in the region of the city. Some others were in Amatrice for a festival to celebrate a famous specialty- amatriciana bacon tomato sauce.

Death toll which was pegged as 70 yesterday has geometrically risen to 247 with the number of deaths still expected to rise as rescuers struggles to bring out buried victims out of the rubble. Present stats shows that the town of Amatrice have suffered over 187 deaths, followed by 47 deaths in Aquarta then  12 in Accumoli.  The quake also struck smaller towns and villages in the mountainous area where the regions of Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche meets. The towns are been pretty divided, while three-quarter of it has all been lost to the quake as thousands are left homeless.

The magnitude 6.2 quake which struck late night early Wednesday 100km(65miles) north east of Rome saw tremors after the quake been felt in far away Rome.  The death toll appeared likely to rival or surpass that from the last major earthquake to strike Italy, which killed more than 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila in 2009.While hopes of finding more people alive diminished by the hour, firefighters' spokesman Luca Cari recalled that survivors were found in L'Aquila up to 72 hours after that quake.