ITALY-2NDLDALL QUAKE 2 LAST

Pope Francis interrupted his weekly audience in St Peter’s Pope Francis interrupted his weekly audience in St Peter’sSquare to express his shock. "To hear the mayor of Amatrice say his village no longerexists and knowing that there are children among the victims,is very upsetting for me," he said. Civil Protection chief Fabrizio Curcio classed the quakeas "severe". The shocks were strong enough to be felt 150kilometres (90 miles) away in Rome, where authorities orderedstructural tests on the Colosseum. Some of the worst damage was suffered in Pescara delTronto, a hamlet near Arquata in the Marche region where thebodies of the dead were laid out in a children’s play park. With residents advised not to go back into their homes,temporary campsites were being established in Amatrice andAccumoli as authorities looked to find emergency accommodationfor more than 2,000 people. Amatrice is a hilltop beauty spot famed as the home ofamatriciana, one of Italy’s favourite pasta sauces, and is apopular destination for Romans seeking cool mountain air atthe height of the summer. It was packed with visitors when the quake struck at3:36am (0136 GMT). Three minutes later the clock on the village’s13th-century tower stopped. The first quake measured 6.2, according to the UnitedStates Geological Survey (USGS), which said it occurred at ashallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles). It measured 6.0 according to Italian monitors, who put thedepth at only four km. A 5.4-magnitude aftershock followed anhour later. Italy is often shaken by earthquakes, usually centred onthe mountainous spine of the boot-shaped country. In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck close to theuniversity city of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region and leftmore than 300 people dead. That disaster led to lengthy recriminations over laxbuilding controls and the failure of authorities to warnresidents that a quake could be imminent. David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences atBritain’s Open University, said Wednesday’s quake had beensimilar to the 2009 one. "Both occurred at a shallow depth, which exacerbates theshaking at the surface," he said. "Unlike the L’Aquila quake, which was preceded by swarmsof smaller quakes and led to claims — unjustified in my view– that the eventual big quake should have been predicted,this one appears to have struck out of the blue." (AFP)SUA