I am...........so saddened and upset at those children lost in earthquake...

[mad1]

of course, who wouldnt.......I think its just how it happened, how they were in the at the wrong time...............for the party.........as natually kids are off this time of year...........

Im sure everyone here has heard..........but again..........


****THE bodies of ten children were pulled from a school flattened by an earthquake as rescuers last night battled to save at least a dozen more.

The kids were at a Halloween party when the concrete walls and roof crashed down on them in the village of San Giuliano di Puglia in south Italy.

Villagers pulled several youngsters and two teachers alive from the rubble. Most of them had been wedged under giant slabs of masonry.



Flattened ... wreckage litters the grim rescue scene
at the quake-wrecked school in southern Italy



Tots in “trick or treat” costumes — faces painted as spooks and witches — watched as pals aged from three to 11 were hauled out, caked in ghostly white cement dust.

Eight of them were last night in a critical condition.

As darkness fell, rescuers worked on using torches and floodlights. They removed rubble using cranes, blow-torches and their bare hands — spurred on by the voices of those trapped.

By late last night they had managed to pull more children and another teacher to safety. Applause broke out and residents yelled “Giovanni! Giovanni!” as one boy was carried out.



Alive ... a boy is stretchered away after being rescued from the rubble



The lad’s father said: “As soon as he came out he called me ‘Papi’ like he always does. He told me there are many other children still alive, a little shocked but still alive.”

One horrified onlooker said: “More than half of the school collapsed.” Another added: “Parents are all trying to find out what happened to their children.”

Bar owner Gianfranci Di Ruta said: “I could feel the earth moving. Lamps were swinging.”

Fifty-six children were at the party when the quake — measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale — shook the region.
Two women died in their homes in the village.

Chunks of rubble hurtled down into streets and crushed cars. People were feared to be trapped in at least one.



Safe ... quake rescuer helps a tot yesterday



Several other towns and villages in the Abruzzo region were rocked by the quake and six aftershocks, which had their epicentre in Campobasso.

The shock was felt 80 miles away in Naples, where 2,570 people were killed in an earthquake in 1980.

Thousands of people rushed out on to the streets of Campobasso as cracks gaped in walls and lumps of heavy plaster plunged from ceilings.


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Well, there is BOUND to be an investigation into why that one building collapsed while the others round it stood....but its too too late......

Im very very sad to hear this.......

God bless the little innocents............may u rest in peace.

[Savannah]

That was heartbreaking, Maddie. It reminds me of two other sad stories, one in the US a few years ago where a group of small kids about to put on an Easter program were killed when a tornado hit their church The other one happened in Wales about 40 years ago when a giant pile of coal landslided onto a school, killing almost everyone inside. The town was known as 'the town with no children' One family whose 3 kids had been home sick that day had to move away. They coudn't take the sad and sometimes resentful looks of the parents who had lost all their kids. The mother said everytime she took her kids to town, or even let them play outside, everyone stared through them hard and it disturbed them all so much. I hope the Italian tragedy won't get any worse than it is and I grieve for all the victims.

[RavenStar]

Stuff like this is just so horrible. It's almost hard to comprehend. Little kids go to a Halowe'en party with all their friends and this happens. All these things are. I just hate it when children die. Especially when they were supposed to be having fun.