Rescue workers in Foggia, southern Italy, last night continued their desperate search in the increasingly remote hope of finding survivors from Thursday's apartment block collapse, in which 31 people are so far reported to have died. Foggia civic authorities report 26 people still unaccounted for, presumed buried under the rubble of the block of flats on the outskirts of Foggia.
During Thursday's rescue operation, 15 survivors, some of them seriously injured, were pulled out of the smoke, dust and rubble of the collapsed building. Yesterday's grim search yielded no further survivors, only dead bodies.
The rescue operation was again hampered by a series of fires and minor explosions from deep within the rubble. Chief Fire Officer Paolo Moccia told reporters that the fires and explosions were most likely caused by gas bottles, by a mattress depository in the basement and by residents' cars parked in basement garages. Even though rescue workers conceded that the combination of fire and smoke made it unlikely that anyone could survive buried under the rubble, Mr Moccia refused to abandon all hope.
He said: "I haven't given up hope of finding someone who might be trapped in some sort of underground cavern, created by the building's collapse."
With the cause of the collapse still uncertain, residents from a similar apartment block nearby were evacuated yesterday as a precautionary measure. It is not yet clear whether the building collapsed because of a structural fault or due to land subsidence, precipitated either by a mild earth tremor or underground water channels.