Italians Recoil From Aftershocks

Aftershocks rocked San Giuliano di Puglia and nearby villages Monday, adding to the misery of thousands of people camped out in tents after an earthquake that killed 29 people - including 26 children who died when their school collapsed.

No injuries or damage were reported in the aftershocks from Thursday's 5.4-magnitude quake. The strongest of at least four shocks Monday had a 4.2 magnitude, said the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.

The aftershocks sent panicked residents in Campobasso - the capital city of the hardest-hit region, Molise - fleeing from their homes during the night, news reports said. The shocks were also felt in tent camps set up across south-central Italy since Thursday's quake.

"In our experience, these phenomena, these shocks, will go on for weeks," said the institute's head, Enzo Boschi. "The area is letting off the energy gradually, and this makes strong shocks less likely."

More than 6,000 people were camped out after the 5.4-magnitude temblor hit, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said, briefing the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.

San Giuliano di Puglia, the village where the school collapsed, was ordered evacuated Friday after a pair of strong aftershocks.

The 1,200 residents have been sleeping in tents on the outskirts of town since then. Rain and strong winds on Monday added to their woes. More than 60 people were injured in the town, Pisanu said.

A woman died Monday in a tent camp in Colletorto, a village about 3 miles south of San Giuliano, state TV said. The woman, 60, had been operated on a month ago, and her health reportedly worsened after she was forced to sleep in a tent.

Universities in Molise and many schools in the south were shut down for damage or inspections. Also ordered temporarily closed for inspection was the courthouse in Larino, whose prosecutors have been looking into the collapse of the school in neighboring San
Giuliano.

Pisanu said the national government had begun a probe of why the half-century old school collapsed while other far older structures in the town survived.

All nine students in the first grade, 17 other elementary school children and a teacher perished. Two women were killed in their homes.

In a show of solidarity, members of Italy's national soccer team will visit the camp in San Giuliano in two weeks, the Italian soccer federation said.

Meanwhile, in seismic activity experts said was unrelated to the mainland quake and aftershocks, about 10 shocks rattled Mount Etna, Europe's biggest and most active volcano Monday. The strongest tremor had a 3.1 magnitude.

A school in Macchia di Giarre, one of the villages on the volcano's slopes, was swiftly evacuated, the Italian news agency ANSA said.