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Show EARTHQUAKE M ERUPTION DESTROY SEVERAL VILLAGES Territory Near Mount Etna Devastated, Devas-tated, 140 Being Killed and at Least 350 Injured. Catania, Sicily. One hundred and forty people killed and 350 injured was the result of an earthquake Friday Fri-day night which destroyed several villages near Mount Etna. The affected xone extends from Zaffarana, the highest village on Mount Etna, to the sea between Aca Reale on the south and Giarre on the north. It includes Linera, the center of the disturbance, Pisano and Santa Venerina. In Linera alone 110 persons per-sons were killed and 300 injured. In the village of Bongiardo, thirteen dead and twenty-seven injured have been taken from the ruins. At Cosen-tini Cosen-tini sixteen were killed and many injured. in-jured. These villages and many smaller places were practically leveled. lev-eled. Automobiles which made the trip through the devastated region were often forced to make a long detour, owing to the deep fissures across the road. The district presented a spectacle of desolation, ruin and death. Peasants Peas-ants rushed to meet the automobiles, imploring aid. Others asked that their injured relatives be transported to Catania, as all train service has been abandoned, owing to the collapse of bridges, broken tracks and obstructed ob-structed tunnels. For centuries this region has suffered suf-fered from earthquakes, owing to the activity of Mount Etna. Yet it is relatively thickly populated, as the land is most fertile, vineyards growing grow-ing with little attention. |