ROME – A landslide carried away a cliff-edge burial site in the northern Italian region of Liguria, scattering about 200 coffins and bodies over a hill and into the Mediterranean.
Divers managed to retrieve 12 coffins from the sea on Wednesday after the landslide in the town of Camogli, about 8 miles north of Portofino, two days earlier. Most of the cemetery’s coffins were left around and under the debris caused by the landslide.
Relatives of people buried in the cemetery gathered in the main square of the resort to get news and protest against what they believed was negligence by the local authorities.
“It was the only place I could see my parents and talk to them,” said Clara Terrile, 66, who owns a shoe store in Camogli, in a phone interview Wednesday, “now I have nothing left.”
The landslide was likely caused by erosion of the cliff below the cemetery, exacerbated by storms that hit the fragile Ligurian coast in recent years, according to Italy’s National Council of Geologists.
“This event has hit the community emotionally,” said Francesco Olivari, the mayor of Camogli. “The whole Liguria is characterized by these phenomena, it was difficult to foresee,” he said.
The landslide, which took place along the coast of Genoa where a bridge collapsed in 2018 killing 43 people, caused outrage in Italy over a lack of infrastructure maintenance and the prevention of natural disasters. Prosecutors in Genoa have opened an investigation into the cemetery collapse.
“This is Italy, not even dead people can rest in peace,” someone says complained on Twitter.
The landslide shows “the lack of maintenance that we geologists have denounced for years,” Domenico Angelone, secretary of the National Council of Geologists said in a statement. Despite their “high social, moral and cultural value,” cemeteries are often built in unstable places and have suffered from a “lack of attention,” he added in recent years.
The town had started to solidify the cliff near the cemetery, and in recent days the area had been enclosed after officials noticed cracks and heard some “creaking”, Said Mr. Olivari, the mayor. Some local residents protested that they had reported cracks and problems with the structure of the cemetery for years.
Lilla Mariotti, a Camogli resident, posted to Facebook a photo of cracks in the cemetery walls that she said she sent the mayor to in 2012. “I never got any answers,” she wrote.
Ms. Terrile said she wrote to the town hall in 2007 that she reported cracks in the front of her father’s grave, but she never got a response either. In 2019, she reported more cracks and City Hall repaired them, she said. A few weeks ago, while visiting the cemetery, she noticed that the same cracks had reappeared.
“I hope my parents are among the bodies they found,” she said, “I don’t even have a place to put a flower anymore.”
Mr Olivari, the mayor, said the city had set up psychological support for the affected families.
Regional authorities asked for help from national rescue services, as the operation to search for the coffins and bodies depended on the security of the cliff, which was at risk of further collapse.
For now, divers can only rescue coffins floating in the sea, as most others are buried beneath the debris from the landslide, said Giacomo Giampedrone, the top regional civil defense officer.