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.

But since the quake, daily aftershocks have hit the area, causing further distress to survivors in tents scattered across the area.

On Friday, a 4.1 magnitude tremor hit just about one kilometre away from the police barracks that will host the other leaders.

The area, in the Coppito district just outside L’Aquila, is cordoned off for the whole week and guarded by thousands of policemen.

Security officials have not disclosed details of their plan, but the number of police forces deployed during the summit is estimated at around 15,000. They will be both in L’Aquila and Rome, where delegations will arrive by plane and where some anti-globalisation demonstrations are planned.

Italy is also reactivating border controls with European countries that are part of the Schengen agreement, which allows free travel among them. The agreement has been suspended from June 28 until July 15, aviation officials said.

The measure is mainly aimed at keeping track of any protesters coming from abroad.