Cypriot students safe after home collapses in Italy quake.

Byline: Alexia Saoulli

TWO CYPRIOT students are being flown home from Italy today after they were left homeless in yesterday's devastating earthquake.

Cypriot Foreign Ministry officials yesterday travelled to the mediaeval town of L'Aquila, about 120 kilometres from Rome, to bring Niovi Michael and Yianna Georgiou to safety. A third Cypriot student was abroad in Brussels when the quake rocked the mountainous region of central Italy during the early hours.

The girls will fly home via Athens onboard a specially scheduled Aegean flight from Rome at 11am, the Cypriot Consular to Italy said.

Niovi's father, Andreas Michael, told CyBC's early morning breakfast show that he had received a phone call from his daughter minutes after the quake struck at 3.30am.

"She said: Dad there was an earthquake and I'm trapped in the house with my flatmate. What should I do?"

Michael told his daughter to remain calm and make her way to a part of the flat that was safe until he could contact someone to free her from the collapsed building.

The anxious father contacted Nicosia's police headquarters which subsequently contacted other services, notifying them of the girl's details.

"When I hung up she called me again and I told her not to keep me on the line, so that she would have enough battery because it might be a long while before anyone reached her and pulled her out," he said.

Thankfully two neighbours overheard his daughter's cries for help and managed to free her from the building via a wall that had collapsed.

Michael said he later received a phonecall from Italian earthquake rescue services to inform him that his daughter was safe and sound.

"They called and said she's OK, thank God," he said.

"I saw her on the TV outside the building and she is fine."

He added that neither Niovi nor her flatmate had been injured because only part of the room around them had collapsed.

Michael said he'd rung his daughter periodically until they'd freed her to give her courage.

"Now everything is good," he said.

According to the Foreign Ministry, other than the three Cypriot students, there were no other Cypriots in L'Aquila. Nevertheless anyone who wanted who further information was advised to contact the ministry on 22-401124.

The earthquake, which was also felt in Rome, was the latest in a series of tremors that have shaken Italy's north central region since Sunday.

It struck at a depth of 10 kilometres and came hours after a 4.6 magnitude tremor struck in Ravenna, in the north-west on Sunday night.

Italy is criss-crossed by two fault lines, with some 20 million people at risk from earthquakes.

A powerful earthquake in the region killed 13 people in 1997 and damaged or destroyed priceless cultural heritage.

The most recent major earthquake, in October 2002, claimed 30 lives including 27 pupils and their teacher who were crushed under their schoolhouse in the tiny medieval village of San Giuliano di Puglia.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2009

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