The Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi was declared safe today (24 August), after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook central Italy. The head restorer Sergio Fusetti surveyed the upper and lower churches at the Unesco World Heritage site for signs of damage in the early hours of the morning, the Italian news agency ANSA reports. The 13th-century monument to Saint Francis, which is decorated with late Medieval frescoes by Cimabue, Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, was partially destroyed by an earthquake in the town in 1997.
At least 38 people have been killed by the earthquake today in the Lazio and Marche regions, according to Italian civil protection authorities. The first and most violent tremor struck near the town of Accumoli around 3.36am, with two further shocks recorded an hour later. Accumoli and the historic mountain village Amatrice, 13km to the south, have been the most severely damaged.
In nearby Abruzzo, there were fears for L’Aquila, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2009, but no damage has been reported. The mayor has pledged to make 250 of the town’s temporary housing units available to the people of Amatrice.
Meanwhile, Italy’s specialist art and antiquities police force, the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, is inspecting cultural heritage sites across the Lazio, Marche and Umbria regions, the Italian culture ministry has announced. Officers will secure the sites against “malicious thefts”, while the ministry’s regional branches seek potential locations to store any works of art that are damaged or deemed to be at risk.
The ministry’s “national crisis unit” is due to meet tomorrow (25 August) to decide a strategy for the protection of cultural heritage in the regions. This “can only happen at the end of the first emergency phase, which must be concerned with saving lives and assisting the affected populations”, the ministry says.
UPDATE: On the morning of 25 August, Italian civil protection authorities confirmed that at least 247 people have died in the earthquake, more than 200 of them in Amatrice. Rescue operations are ongoing.
