Amatrice earthquake: Italian Prime Minister Draghi pays tribute to the victims on the fifth anniversary

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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi paid tribute to the victims of the earthquake that devastated entire towns five years ago

Nearly 300 people were killed when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy in the early hours of August 24, 2016.

This was the first of more than a dozen earthquakes that hit the region over the following months and displaced thousands of people.

As many as 237 people were buried under the rubble in Amatrice, a medieval hill town that is the birthplace of the famous pasta dish Amatriceana in Italy. Another 51 people were killed in the neighboring municipality of Arquata and another 11 in Acumuli.

On Tuesday, Draghi laid a memorial wreath at the memorial to the victims at Don Minozzi Park in Amatrice on the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

The Italian prime minister then participated in a mass at a nearby sports stadium attended by local residents and pledged to speed up reconstruction efforts in the area.

Italian government officials pledged to rebuild the collapsed historic center of Amatrice and other nearby cities in the aftermath of the earthquake, but bureaucratic problems have slowed efforts to a crawl.

“In the past the situation was slow, but now the situation is different,” Draghi told a committee of residents, according to a statement.

“The reconstruction work is going faster. I am here to bring you the confidence and commitment of the government.”

The recently appointed government-appointed Reconstruction Commissioner announced that the project is accelerating amid a streamlined process for approving plans and funding. According to a June status update, 12,000 homes have been built and work is in progress at another 5,000 sites.

So far, residents and business owners have submitted requests for reconstruction financing totaling €5.4 billion. A third of the 10,000 applications approved so far were approved in the first six months of this year, the report added.

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