Court Blames Earthquake Victims For Own Deaths In Italy

An earthquake of 6.3-magnitude struck on April 6 at around 3:32 am, after months of tremors across the rugged Abruzzo region in central Italy.

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New Delhi: An Italian court blamed the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake for their own deaths and said that the compensation for their relatives should be reduced, news agency AFP reported on Wednesday citing media reports. The court ruled some of the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake were partly to blame for their own deaths and compensation for their relatives should be reduced.

An earthquake of 6.3-magnitude struck on April 6 at around 3:32 am, after months of tremors across the rugged Abruzzo region in central Italy. Around 309 people were killed and Houses collapsed throughout L'Aquila's historic centre.

The judge in a civil suit for millions of euros in damages, presented by relatives of 24 people who died in one of the buildings, said the victims had gone back to bed despite two tremors earlier in the night, AFP reported.

That "rash behaviour" made them "30 per cent responsible" for their deaths, she said, according to the Messaggero daily, the agency reported.

Maria Grazia Piccinini, who is a lawyer by profession and the mother of a 25-year-old student Ilaria Rambaldi who died termed the ruling on Tuesday "absurd" considering experts had played down fears of a killer quake.

"My daughter was reassured, just like everyone else," Piccinini told the Corriere Della Sera, as reported by AFP adding that they would be appealing the ruling.

Seven members of Italy's Major Risks Prevention Commission were initially convicted over advice given to residents before the disaster, though all but one of those would later be overturned.

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The earthquake left 1,600 people injured and at least 80,000 people homeless. The L'Aquila's elegant medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque squares and buildings were reduced to rubble.

(With Inputs from AFP)