Second quake at site; 16 dead

SAN FELICE SUL PANARO, Italy – Workers at the small machinery company had just returned for their first shift following Italy’s powerful and deadly quake earlier this month when another one struck, collapsing the roof.

At least three employees at the factory were among those killed Tuesday in the second deadly quake in nine days to strike a region of Italy that hadn’t considered itself particularly quake prone.

By late Tuesday, the death toll stood at 16, with one person missing: a worker at the machinery factory in the small town of San Felice Sul Panaro. Some 350 people also were injured in the 5.8 magnitude quake north of Bologna.

The injured included a 65-year-old woman who was pulled out alive by rescuers after lying for 12 hours in the rubble of her apartment’s kitchen in Cavezzo, another town hard-hit by the quake. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The building had been damaged in the first quake, on May 20, and had been vacant since. The woman had just gone back inside it Tuesday to retrieve some clothes when the latest temblor knocked down the building.

Factories, barns and churches fell, dealing a second blow to a region where thousands remained homeless from the May 20 temblor, much stronger in intensity, at 6.0 magnitude.

The two quakes struck one of the most productive regions in Italy at a particularly crucial moment, as the country faces enormous pressure to grow its economy to stave off the continent’s debt crisis.

The area encompassing the cities of Modena, Mantua and Bologna is prized for its super car production, churning out Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis; its world-famous Parmesan cheese; and less well-known but critical to the economy – its machinery companies.