"Voices could be heard from under the rubble shouting: 'help us, help us'," said a young woman who rushed to the Marche village of Pescara del Tronto to look for her parents.
 "My mother and father are injured, but alive," she added from the accident and emergency department at Ascoli Piceno hospital, where she was waiting with her parents for them to receive treatment. "A few friends helped us to pull them out," she added, describing the situation in Pescara del Tronto as a "bloody mess". "At least three people died, I saw a child being carried by his uncle who was desperately calling for help. There were lots of building collapses," the woman said. The situation was no better in the nearby Lazio town of Amatrice, where Mayor Sergio Pirozzi reported "dozens" of victims.
"I am alive by miracle and because I had just woken up to go to work," said a trash collector who survived after his home collapsed in Via Costanzo Angelini in the historic centre. "I had just got up when suddenly everything collapsed. Ten seconds were enough to destroy everything," he added. "I can remember the (2009) L'Aquila earthquake, it lasted longer. Here everything happened in a flash." (Ansa)