Italy on quake alert ahead of G8 summit

WITH the world’s most powerful leaders gathering in L’Aquila just three months after a devastating earthquake hit the city, Italian security officials have prepared an emergency evacuation plan to airlift the leaders to safety in case of another powerful tremor.

The evacuation plan is part of massive security measures to protect the leaders of the G8 industrialised nations meeting today. Italy is deploying thousands of policemen as it seeks to avoid the violence that marred the last G8 summit held in Italy, when one protester was killed and more than 200 were injured in Genoa in 2001.

The April 6 earthquake levelled entire blocks in L’Aquila and the surrounding Abruzzo region, driving some 54,000 from their homes and killing 296 people. Premier Silvio Berlusconi decided to move the summit from a posh Sardinian island to L’Aquila in a show of support to the stricken population.