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Rescuers search for 15 still missing in Amatrice

Angela Giuffrida
Angela Giuffrida - [email protected]
Rescuers search for 15 still missing in Amatrice
A suitcase in the rubble of a collapsed home in Amatrice. Photo: Angela Giuffrida/The Local

A team of specialist rescue workers from Shanghai is searching for 15 people unaccounted for in Amatrice, the Lazio town torn apart by Wednesday's devastating earthquake.

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The team, coordinated by Ho Chin, is using equipment capable of scanning depths of 15 metres.

Work got underway on Friday afternoon.

"Fifteen people are still thought to be missing, we will use these scanners to try and find them, " Chin told The Local

The 15 people are thought to have been visitors to the town, which had been due to host the 50th edition of an annual festival celebrating its centuries-old pasta dish, Amatriciana, this weekend.

"We don't know who they might be, they could have been staying in a holiday home or were guests in someone's home," a resident, who lost several relatives in the quake, told The Local.

Amatrice was shaken by another powerful aftershock on Friday morning, causing further damage to its centre.

The earthquake has claimed at least 267 lives, the majority in Amatrice, while at least 367 have been hospitalised.

Nobody has been pulled alive from the rubble since Wednesday.

Flags will fly at half-mast across Italy on Saturday, to coincide with the first funerals.

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