Emergency crews pull boy form quake rubble

Italian emergency crews clawing through the rubble of a school pulled a boy alive from the wreckage today, almost 24 hours after an earthquake collapsed the building during a Halloween party.

At least 24 people were killed, nearly all of them young pupils.

The police headquarters of Campobasso, near the town of San Giuliano Di Puglia, said the boy, about seven-years-old, was rushed to hospital and his condition was not immediately known.

As hopes of finding anyone else alive faded, rescuers used cranes, sledgehammers, blowtorches and their bare hands to reach five youngsters known to still be under the rubble.

Two strong aftershocks, with magnitudes of 3.5 and 3.0, rocked the town as rescuers worked feverishly.

The death toll had mounted quickly after midnight. Officials said today that 24 people were confirmed dead – 21 children inside the school, a teacher and two women in nearby homes.

The latest victim brought out was the teacher, a woman whose body was wrapped in a blanket and carried away to an ambulance.

A rescue worker, in hard hat and covered with dust, said most of the dead children were crushed at their desks as the roof crashed down upon them.

“A huge tragedy leaves us with only one certainty. It looks like the first grade class was wiped out,” said a local priest, the Rev Ferndano Manna.

The school complex had nursery, elementary and middle school students.

A nine-year-old boy identified only as Angelo was rescued at 3:54am.

“We are still clinging to any thread of hope,” national fire chief Mario Morcone said at the scene.

The bodies of the dead were being housed in a makeshift morgue at the town’s sports centre, where family members came to identify them.

The 5.4-magnitude quake hit the Campobasso area northeast of Naples in the Molise region at 11:33am (12.33pm Irish time) yesterday.

San Giuliano di Puglia, a medieval farming village of about 1,195 people, was the hardest hit, with several buildings damaged.

The ANSA news agency said 3,000 people in the region were left homeless, unable or unwilling to sleep in their damaged homes.

The yellow nursery school in San Giuliano di Puglia collapsed entirely on itself, trapping 56 children, their teachers and two janitors inside as they celebrated Halloween, which is becoming increasingly popular in Italy.

The quake’s epicentre was in Campobasso, a city about 50 miles northeast of Naples and 140 miles southeast of Rome.

The tremor was felt across the Adriatic in Croatia, particularly on high floors of apartment buildings, the Croatian Seismological Institute said.

Residents said the school toll could have been avoided if city officials had paid attention to a request from the parish priest, the Rev Ulisse Marinelli, to keep children home after a weaker earthquake hit the area overnight.