San Felice Sul Panaro (Italy), May 29 (AFP) A strong earthquake today rocked northeastern Italy, killing at least 16 people and injuring 350 just days after another quake in the same region wrought death and destruction. One woman was pulled out alive from the rubble in the town of Cavezzo this evening, officials said. Rescuers spent the day combing through the debris for the one person Italy's civil protection authority said was still missing at nightfall after a series of strong quakes that caused widespread panic among residents. Authorities said the region was struck between 1626 IST and 1631 IST by three tremors of between 5.1 and over 5.3 magnitude, following a 5.8 magnitude quake just after 1230 IST when people were heading into work. "Everything's collapsed, it's chaos, buildings across the town are down," a fireman in the tiny town of Cavezzo told Corriere della Sera newspaper. The first quake struck about 60 kilometres, east of Parma, according to the Geographical Institute of Modena, and sent panicked residents rushing into the streets in quake-struck cities including Pisa and Venice. The civil protection authority late Tuesday updated the quake's toll to 16 people killed and around 350 injured as authorities warned that more aftershocks were possible in upcoming days. "The sequence (of aftershocks) will be long and we cannot rule out that other strong quakes could happen," said Stefano Gresta, the head of the country's national institute of geophysics and volcanology (INGV). Today's quakes followed a 6.0 magnitude quake in the industrial northeast on May 20 which killed six people and left thousands in makeshift tent dwellings, with many homes and historic buildings reduced to rubble. MORE (AFP)
