After Quake, Nun Texted 'Adieu' to Family

Strong aftershock hits stricken Italian town
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2016 3:51 AM CDT
After Quake, Nun Texted 'Adieu' to Family
Lleshi is seen texting family after her rescue.   (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

The AP has tracked down the nun seen in an iconic photo of this week's devastating earthquake in central Italy. Marjana Lleshi, 35, says she thought she would die when the Amatrice convent she was sleeping in collapsed early Wednesday, killing three other nuns and four of the elderly women they cared for and leaving her trapped. She says she texted "adieu" to friends and family in her native Albania—and then texted them to say she was alive after she was pulled from the rubble by a young man who helped one of the elderly women at the convent. She says she still hopes to travel to Rome next week for the canonization of Mother Teresa, another Albanian nun.

A 4.7-magnitude aftershock, the strongest of hundreds since early Wednesday, hit the area early Friday, hindering rescue operations but causing no additional reports of deaths or injuries. Italy has declared a state of emergency in the quake-ravaged region, where the death toll has now hit 267, CNN reports. The emergency measures include canceling taxes in the towns of Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto, and Pescara del Tronto, reports the Guardian, which notes that as the dust settles, Italians are beginning to ask why the death toll is so high in an area long known to be earthquake-prone. (More Italy stories.)

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