This time, the tourist island of Ischia, just off the shoreline at Naples in Southern Italy was hit by a 3.6 Richter scale earthquake at 9pm local time last night.
So far, Italian authorities have confirmed 2 people died whilst 20 injuries were counted. Many more are missing.
One of the defiant images of the disaster came when baby Pasquale was saved by firefighters and reunited with his mother Alessia.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seven-month-old baby is pulled ALIVE from the rubble after earthquake rocks tourist island of Ischia <a href="https://t.co/ZIzHmXDmhQ">https://t.co/ZIzHmXDmhQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/YP1HaAF8kY">pic.twitter.com/YP1HaAF8kY</a></p>— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) <a href="https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/899898743352430592">August 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Meanwhile, his two brothers, aged four and seven are still trapped in a collapsed building. Rescue workers are talking to the boys to keep them calm whilst looking for a way to get them out. A race is on to get them out safe as quickly as possible.
The head of the civil protection, Mr. Angelo Borrelli, was quoted by Italian daily La Repubblica that they were optimistic of reaching the trapped boys, whilst warning that: "as more time passes the more the situation becomes complicated"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UPDATE?src=hash">#UPDATE</a> Two dead after <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/earthquake?src=hash">#earthquake</a> hits <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Italian?src=hash">#Italian</a> island of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ischia?src=hash">#Ischia</a> during peak tourist season, rescuers struggle to free two children <a href="https://t.co/1Ev2nGT6JW">pic.twitter.com/1Ev2nGT6JW</a></p>— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/status/899900660929380352">August 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Security forces fear that much more could be trapped as many people in Ischia. The island has a population of some 50,000 and is very popular with tourists, many of whom ran out of the bars and restaurants when the quake hit. Italian newspaper Il Messagero reports that some 1,500 people are already homeless.
Italy is no stranger to earthquakes lately. On 18 January of this year, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck 25 km northwest of L'Aquila on at a depth of 9 km. These were followed by multiple aftershocks. The quakes were felt in other parts of central Italy as well, including the city of Rome, where many schools and even the metro system was shut for a while. In total, some 34 people died.
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