The death toll from a flash
flood that hit hikers in a mountain-river canyon in Calabria
Monday rose to 10 Tuesday as one of those injured died in
hospital, but three missing hikers were found alive.
The victim died because of a chest trauma in Cosenza
hospital, local sources said.
He had been gravely injured in the flood that swept away a
group of hikers in the Pollino National Park.
A search is on for the three missing hikers, police sources
said Tuesday.
Carabinieri said three mountain rescue teams from Umbria,
Campania and Basilicata were taking part in the search.
An eight-year-old girl saved after the flash flood was found
next to a dead body, rescuers said.
The girl, Chiara, "was semi-conscious but in a clear state of
shock," a doctor said.
"Her parents were almost certainly among the victims," said
the doctor, Pasquale Gagliardi, head of the regional copter
rescue unit.
Calabrian prosecutors on Tuesday opened a probe into the
disaster.
The probe, against person or persons unknown, posits the
possible charges of culpable manslaughter, culpable bodily harm,
flooding and negligence, judicial sources said.
So far no autopsies have been ordered, said prosecutor
Eugenio Facciolla.
"The first thought," he said, "is to save as many people as
possible and then identify the victims.
"We will assess the case this afternoon".
The bodies were said to bear the typical signs of being
dragged down a river.
Three young people from Puglia missing after the flood were
found alive on Tuesday, local sources said.
The trio, aged 21, 22 and 23, had been camped out to the
north of the scene of the tragedy, sources said, in an area
without cellphone coverage.
A friend of theirs told police on Twitter they were OK.
It is "99.9% certain" that there are no missing people now
left after the flood, Environment Minister Sergio Costa said
Tuesday.
Speaking after a public order meeting at Civita, near the
scene of the tragedy, he said "it is 99.9% certain that there
are no more missing among the people involved in the flash flood
of the Raganello River".
Following is the unofficial list of the 10 victims:
1 Paola Romagnoli, born Bergamo, 1963, university researcher.
2 Antonio de Rasis, 1986, Trebisacce (Cosenza)
3 Gianfranco Fumarola, 1975, Martina Franca (Taranto)
4 Maria Immacolata Marrazzo, 1975, Ercolano (Naples)
5 Carmela Tammaro, 1977, Naples
6 Antonio Santopaolo, 1974, Naples
7 Miriam Mezzolla, 1991, Taranto
8 Carlo Maurici, 1983, Rome
9 Valentina Venditti, 1984, Rome
10 Claudia Giampietro, 1987, Conversano (Bari).
One of the 10 was a rescuer who worked at the Rigopiano hotel
disaster in 2017, sources said Tuesday.
Antonio De Rasis, 32, a civil protection volunteer, was among
the guides leading hikers through Calabrian gorges when a
rain-swollen river struck them.
The Hotel Rigopiano in Abruzzo was hit by an avalanche in
January 2017 that killed 29 people.
De Rasis was among the rescuers who pulled out 11 people
alive.
President Sergio Mattarella said Tuesday "all our country
feels great sadness for this new tragedy that caused so many
deaths and injuries in the Pollino Park.
"I voice the utmost solidarity with the victims' relatives
and the injured and I thank the rescue persons who operated and
are still operating, with their customary abnegation, in
difficult conditions".
Premier Giuseppe Conte voiced "concern and sadness".
"I am continuing to follow with concern and sadness the
developments in the tragedy of the #Pollino (National Park)", he
tweeted.
"It is unfortunately a matter of 10 dead, 11 injured and 23
people rescued unhurt.
"Thank you to the tireless rescue machine.
"The government is close to the families of the victims and
to the injured".
Calabria Governor Mario Oliverio called a regional day of
mourning for Wednesday.
Civil Protection department chief Angelo Borrelli said
Tuesday a yellow weather alert had been in place when the hikers
were hit by the river swell.
"There was the yellow alert. And I remind everyone that there
can also be deaths with a yellow alert," he said.
He said the tragedy had been "in some ways foreseeable".
Borrelli called for a national platform to work with regional
agencies on weather alerts in the wake of the tragedy.
Borrelli said he had spoken about it with Premier Conte.
He said "it is one of the main points of my renewed
position".
A nine-year-old girl was placed in deep sedation after being
critically injured in the flood.
The girl was hit full on by the swell of the Raganello River
in the Gole di Raganello area.
She is being sedated in Rome's Policlinico Gemelli Hospital
after being moved from a Calabrian hospital.
The girl, who is being artificially ventilated, is suffering
acute respiratory insufficiency due to inhaling muddy water,
doctors said.
She is in the Gemelli IC unit.
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