Italian Graveyard Crumbles Off Cliff, Sending 200 Coffins Into Sea

Erosion along the coastline caused a landslide that utterly destroyed this seaside cemetery in northern Italy.
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A cemetery in the seaside resort town of Camogli, in northern Italy, collapsed due to a landslide on Monday afternoon, sending an estimated 200 coffins into the ocean.

The cemetery, built more than a century ago, was located along a rocky cliff. Francesco Olivari, the mayor of Camogli, told CNN that the disaster was an “unimaginable catastrophe” that had likely occurred due to erosion along the coast.

“This type of collapse that happened today is very hard to detect or to predict,” Olivari said. “This area is subject to this type of collapse ― it’s very fragile.”

Aside from the cemetery, the landslide destroyed two chapels that had bodies contained in them, and rubble from the structures also tumbled down the cliff into the Mediterranean Sea below.

According to local Italian media, as of Tuesday, 10 bodies had been recovered from the sea, five of which were identified.

Images and video posted to Twitter by Vigili del Fuocol, the official account of Italy’s firefighting brigade, showed the extent of the catastrophe.

Frana a Camogli (GE), cede il terreno sotto una struttura del cimitero: nessuna persona coinvolta, squadre e #sommozzatori dei #vigilidelfuoco al lavoro per verifiche tecniche, messa in sicurezza e il recupero delle bare finite in mare #22febbraio pic.twitter.com/fEbPHQOC8Y

— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) February 22, 2021

Frana cimitero a #Camogli (GE), è ripresa in mattinata la ricerca e il recupero delle bare finite ieri in mare: #vigilidelfuoco impegnati nelle delicate operazioni con il nucleo #sommozzatori, gli specialisti nautici, il reparto volo e i dronisti #23febbraio pic.twitter.com/UfOOiy4YB0

— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) February 23, 2021

#Camogli (GE), frana cimitero: prosegue da parte di specialisti #sommozzatori e nautici dei #vigilidelfuoco la ricerca e il recupero delle centinaia di bare finite in mare lunedì pomeriggio. Droni in volo per monitorare le operazioni delle squadre e l’area del crollo #24febbraio pic.twitter.com/cRFxHw0KJe

— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) February 24, 2021

Camogli’s councillor for public works, Tino Revello, told Italian news agency ANSA that the graveyard had been cordoned off prior to the collapse due to “strange creaking sounds.”

Italy’s National Council of Geologists commented on the collapse in a press release and said it represented the “enormous fragility” of structures in Italy’s countryside, as well as “the poor maintenance that we geologists have been denouncing for years.”

In 2018, a 50-year-old bridge in Genoa ― about 15 miles west of Camogli ― similarly collapsed due to torrential rain, killing 43 people and leaving 600 homeless. The bridge had long been a subject of controversy, with experts arguing that it was structurally unsound and a disaster waiting to happen.

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