The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press A woman is seen wrapped in a blanket immediately following a quake aftershock, in a tent-camp in L 'Aquila, central Italy, Tuesday, April 7, 2009. As residents were sleeping early Monday, a powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings, the most devastating quake in the country since 1980. Strong aftershocks have continued to jolt the region, and the official death toll from Monday's temblor has climbed to 207, with 15 people still unaccounted for. On Nov. 23, 1980, a 6.9-magnitude quake hit southern regions, leveling villages and causing some 3,000 deaths. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) - Strong aftershocks Tuesday sent a fresh wave of fear across earthquake-shattered central Italy, and rescue crews pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.

Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-story building in central L'Aquila, said her grandfather, Renato Calesini, in the seaside town of Mondaini.

"She's safe!" he told The Associated Press, adding that her father had gone to devastated city in the snowcapped Apennine mountains to try to locate the student, who wears a hearing aid. She reportedly had an arm injury but was in good condition otherwise.

The death toll from Italy's worst earthquake in three decades climbed to 235, with 15 still missing, civil protection officials said. The dead included four students trapped in the rubble of a dormitory of the University of L'Aquila, the ANSA news agency reported.

Rescue crews gave up gingerly removing debris by hand and brought in huge pincers that pulled off parts of the dorm roof, balconies and walls, showering debris down.

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