Italy was rocked by a violent earthquake yesterday which claimed the lives of at least four children and two adults in the little village of San Giuliano di Puglia in the southern Molise region.
That official death toll by late last night, however, seemed certain to rise as rescue workers fought a desperate battle against time in order to save more than 25 children trapped under the rubble of their collapsed school.
The earthquake, which measured 5.4 on the Richter scale, struck at about 11.40 yesterday morning, making itself felt in places as far apart as Naples in Campana and Foggia in Puglia.
Although the earthquake caused both widespread alarm and extensive structural damage in villages throughout the Molise region, it was San Giuliano di Puglia which paid the heaviest toll when its 1953-built schoolhouse collapsed in on itself like a pack of cards.
At the time of the earthquake, approximately 60 people - 50 children, eight teachers and two janitors - were believed to have been in the school.
Given the almost totally collapsed state of the building, yesterday's rescue work proved extremely difficult.
Such was the fragile state of the structure that workers were obliged to remove the rubble by hand since heavy machinery might have endangered the lives of those trapped below. Later in the day, sniffer dogs were used in an effort to find those trapped.
Remarkably, by late last night, more than 31 children had been pulled alive out of the rubble. Several of the survivors were suffering from arm and leg fractures, but hospital authorities in nearby Larina said their condition was not life-threatening.