PM Berlusconi visits Sicily after 22 die in landslide

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited landslide survivors in Sicily yesterday as bulldozers dug for bodies in the devastated area where at least 22 people were killed last week.

Mr Berlusconi said during his visit to Messina on the island’s east that those affected by the landslide that also left 35 people missing would be exempt from taxes.

“We will block taxes and credit repayments for residents of the area affected by the landslide,” he told survivors at a hotel where 190 people have taken shelter.

“Reconstruction is too expensive and cannot be assured, so we will do like in L’Aquila: new homes in other areas, but still within the urban fabric,” he added, drawing applause from residents.

An April 6 earthquake killed 229 people in L’Aquila and the surrounding area on the Italian mainland and left 70,000 homeless.

In Sicily, several villages in the region hit by torrential rain that sparked the mudslide on Thursday remained cut off. Mr Berlusconi toured hard-hit areas by helicopter.

“What I saw from the helicopter is really disturbing,” he said.

The Civil Protection service in Sicily said that at least 22 had died, 35 were missing, 29 people were recovering in hospital and 564 people whose homes were engulfed by the mud were sleeping in schools, hotels and other temporary accommodation.

In places the mud was seven metres (25 feet) deep and civil protection teams and firefighters, four sniffer dog units and more than 200 volunteers were searching through the devastated zone.

Roads are cut and the only way for rescuers to get to the zone is to walk along rail tracks.