L'Aquila
The western Polish city of Zielona Góra offered help to its twin Italian city of L'Aquila which was struck by a powerful earthquake on Monday morning and an aftershock on Tuesday. Over 200 people were killed in the quake with hundreds injured and thousands more left homeless. A group of Polish survivors were safely evacuated to this country.
Danuta Isler reports
The Italian government has not asked for international search and rescue help yet but foreign emergency services, also in Poland, are on the stand-by, monitoring the situation. Poland was also among the first countries to offer Italy assistance. A more personal help proposal also came from the western city of Zielona Góra which was twinned with L'Aquila in 1996 and now declared three days of mourning for the victims of the distaster. A group of L'Aquila children were also invited to Zielona Góra to recover from the stress and rest. Help to the city of L'Aquila was also offered by the governor of Silesia, Zygmunt Łukaszczyk, who in a special letter to deputy PM Grzegorz Schetyna declared the availability of various sorts of humanitarian assistance.
The quake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook central Italy on Monday morning. Its epicenter was three miles from the city of l'Aquila, in the mountainous region of Abruzzo some 100 kilometres north of Rome. According to Italian authorities, the death toll has already risen to 250. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced rescue efforts will continue over the next two days.