Earthquakes leave more than 30,000 dead in Italy

Italy, 18 January 1915 - More than 30,000 people are now estimated to have died in the series of earthquakes that has destroyed towns and villages all across central Italy in the past week.

Up to 200,000 people are thought to have been injured with many more left homeless in the intense cold of the winter.

Speaking yesterday, the Bishop of Marri said: ‘The diocese has been reduced to a cemetery. Avezzano, Capella, Patarno are razed to the ground. Nearly all the inhabitants are dead. Only a small part of the diocese has escaped unscathed. The catastrophe is immense and desolating.’

The ruins of the famous Castello Orsini: another sign of the terrible earthquake. (Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, C.C. 20540 USA)

Rescue attempts

Relief efforts have been hampered by aftershocks which sent people rushing panic-stricken into the street. These aftershocks meant that relief work had to be undertaken under very dangerous conditions. Around Sora crevasses several yards long have appeared, from which sulphurous gases and fountains of boiling water are emanating.

All around are scenes of appalling tragedy as men and women tore through the rubble of buildings attempting to find family and friends.

A woman who gave birth to a child underneath the wreckage of a house near the town of Capella was rescued by the police. Both mother and child are said to be well.

King Victor Emmanuel (pictured) and his wife have been engaged in efforts to relieve the suffering of children left destitute by the earthquakes. (Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, C.C. 20540 USA) 

King's Visit

The King of Italy visited survivors of the earthquake yesterday and was warmly welcomed as he passed through the region.

King Victor Emmanuel III has donated more than £12,000 to be used towards the guardianship and protection of children left destitute; the fund will be administered by his wife, Queen Elena who yesterday arranged for the establishment of a facility for housing homeless children.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]