A decade after the deadly quake, cranes still dominate Amatrice's skyline as residents describe a rebuilding effort that remains frustratingly slow.Italy on Monday marks 10 years since the earthquake that devastated Amatrice and the surrounding Apennine villages, killing 303 people and levelling entire communities in the centre of the country.Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is scheduled to attend a commemoration ceremony in Amatrice on Monday afternoon. A decade after the earthquake, despite billions of euro in reconstruction funding, much of the affected area remains a landscape of cranes, scaffolding and half-finished building sites. Earthquake The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 03.36 on 24 August 2016, devastating Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto. Amatrice alone lost 237 residents. In total there were 303 fatalities: 299 of whom died under the rubble that night, and four in the months following the disaster due to their injuries. 24 agosto 2016, ore 3:36#terremotocentroitalia pic.twitter.com/jI2Re0pmzU — Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 24, 2026 The quake was only the beginning of one of the longest and most complex seismic sequences ever recorded in Europe: aftershocks continued for months, including a 6.5-magnitude quake near Norcia on 30 October 2016 - Italy's strongest since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake - and further tremors above magnitude 5 in January 2017. By the end of the sequence, more than 124,000 shocks had been recorded and underground fault ruptures extended over 70km. Sergio Pirozzi, Amatrice's mayor at the time of the disaster, recalled the chaos of that night to Italian news agency Adnkronos. "There was a full moon. I remember the screaming," he said, describing residents searching for their children at dawn and helping identify the bodies of people he had known his whole life. A skyline of cranes and unfinished streets 10 years later, Amatrice's historic centre remains dominated by construction cranes rising above a vast expanse where the town once stood, with many restoration projects bogged down by red tape. The civic tower, the only structure left standing after the quake, has been restored as a symbol of resilience, its clock still frozen at 03.36. Corso Umberto I, the town's main street, reopened to traffic only in recent days after a decade of closure - now little more than a strip of fresh asphalt running past ruins still held up by scaffolding and buildings wrapped for restoration work. Away from the main street, essential public buildings are still missing: the new town hall, the carabinieri station - of which only foundations exist - the post office and local banks are all yet to be rebuilt. A new hospital, intended to serve the wider area between Rieti and Ascoli Piceno, remains wrapped in scaffolding and is not expected to open before 2027. Guido Castelli, the government's special commissioner for reconstruction, said 15,000 building sites across the earthquake zone had been completed, with roughly 9,000 still under way. According to Italy's anti-corruption authority Anac, a third of the reconstruction projects, worth €2.17 billion, have been inspected, with only nine legal disputes recorded since 2021. Emergency housing Fewer than 20 per cent of the roughly 1,000 people displaced from Amatrice have returned to permanent housing, according to figures reported by news agency ANSA. Across the wider crater zone, more than 2,000 families remain in wooden prefabricated emergency housing units nearly a decade after they were meant to be temporary. In Amatrice alone, 640 such units remain occupied across 41 settlements. Sonia Santarelli, president of the 3e36 civic committee, named after the time of the earthquake, told reporters that so little permanent housing had been built that turnover in the temporary units has been minimal. In protest at the pace of reconstruction, her committee said it would not take part in official anniversary commemorations. Current mayor Giorgio Cortellesi, who found his own children alive by chance after his house collapsed that night, said reviving the town remained possible "even if building sites stall on and off because of problems with contractors." He noted that around a fifth of residents are supported by social services because they have become isolated, and called for more communal spaces beyond the theatre and two small shopping centres. Of Amatrice's roughly 2,323 registered residents, only just over 1,000 actually live there, and the town now records just three or four births a year - underlining concerns that the community risks disappearing even if the buildings are eventually restored. Returns and departures Amid the despair, some residents have chosen to invest in the town's future. Others have found the wait unbearable. In the outlying frazione of Capricchia, home to just 15 residents in winter, reconstruction has started on only three or four houses, with the rest of the settlement essentially frozen in the state it was left in on the night of the earthquake. Further north, in villages such as Visso and Ussita in the Marche region, communal spaces including a swimming pool and an ice rink remain derelict, and local reconstruction has similarly crawled forward: the historic town hall building in Visso was only reopened for building work on 27 July this year. End date for state of emergency Rome has recently moved to bring the reconstruction period to a formal close. Earlier this month the government approved a new package of measures running until 2029, setting 31 December 2026 as the date on which Italy's national state of emergency for the 2016 earthquake will end, giving way to a "reconstruction phase" under the special commissioner's office. Tax incentives have also been introduced for businesses investing in Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto, along with additional funding for social reconstruction projects. Five years ago, on the earthquake's fifth anniversary, then prime minister Mario Draghi travelled to Amatrice to commemorate the victims, at a time when many survivors were already voicing frustration at the slow pace of rebuilding. A decade on, with cranes still dominating the skyline and thousands of residents still living in temporary housing, that frustration in the earthquake zone has only deepened. Photo credit: Alessia Pierdomenico / Shutterstock.com

Italy on Monday marks 10 years since the earthquake that devastated Amatrice and the surrounding Apennine villages, killing 303 people and levelling entire communities in the centre of the country. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni is scheduled to attend a commemoration ceremony in Amatrice on Monday afternoon. A decade after the earthquake, despite billions of euro in reconstruction funding, much of the affected area remains a landscape of cranes, scaffolding and half-finished building sites. The 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 03.36 on 24 August 2016, devastating Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto. Amatrice alone lost 237 residents. In total there were 303 fatalities: 299 of whom died under the rubble that night, and four in the months following the disaster due to their injuries. 24 agosto 2016, ore 3:36  — Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco)  The quake was only the beginning of one of the longest and most complex seismic sequences ever recorded in Europe: aftershocks continued for months, including a  on 30 October 2016 - Italy's strongest since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake - and further tremors above magnitude 5 in January 2017. By the end of the sequence, more than 124,000 shocks had been recorded and underground fault ruptures extended over 70km. Sergio Pirozzi, Amatrice's mayor at the time of the disaster, recalled the chaos of that night to Italian news agency Adnkronos. "There was a full moon. I remember the screaming," he said, describing residents searching for their children at dawn and helping identify the bodies of people he had known his whole life. 10 years later, Amatrice's historic centre remains dominated by construction cranes rising above a vast expanse where the town once stood, with many restoration projects bogged down by red tape. The civic tower, the only structure left standing after the quake, has been restored as a symbol of resilience, its clock still frozen at 03.36. Corso Umberto I, the town's main street, reopened to traffic only in recent days after a decade of closure - now little more than a strip of fresh asphalt running past ruins still held up by scaffolding and buildings wrapped for restoration work. Away from the main street, essential public buildings are still missing: the new town hall, the carabinieri station - of which only foundations exist - the post office and local banks are all yet to be rebuilt. A new hospital, intended to serve the wider area between Rieti and Ascoli Piceno, remains wrapped in scaffolding and is not expected to open before 2027. Guido Castelli, the government's special commissioner for reconstruction, said 15,000 building sites across the earthquake zone had been completed, with roughly 9,000 still under way. According to Italy's anti-corruption authority Anac, a third of the reconstruction projects, worth €2.17 billion, have been inspected, with only nine legal disputes recorded since 2021. Fewer than 20 per cent of the roughly 1,000 people displaced from Amatrice have returned to permanent housing, according to figures reported by news agency ANSA. Across the wider crater zone, more than 2,000 families remain in wooden prefabricated emergency housing units nearly a decade after they were meant to be temporary. In Amatrice alone, 640 such units remain occupied across 41 settlements. Sonia Santarelli, president of the 3e36 civic committee, named after the time of the earthquake, told reporters that so little permanent housing had been built that turnover in the temporary units has been minimal. In protest at the pace of reconstruction, her committee said it would not take part in official anniversary commemorations. Current mayor Giorgio Cortellesi, who found his own children alive by chance after his house collapsed that night, said reviving the town remained possible "even if building sites stall on and off because of problems with contractors." He noted that around a fifth of residents are supported by social services because they have become isolated, and called for more communal spaces beyond the theatre and two small shopping centres. Of Amatrice's roughly 2,323 registered residents, only just over 1,000 actually live there, and the town now records just three or four births a year - underlining concerns that the community risks disappearing even if the buildings are eventually restored. Amid the despair, some residents have chosen to invest in the town's future. Others have found the wait unbearable. In the outlying frazione of Capricchia, home to just 15 residents in winter, reconstruction has started on only three or four houses, with the rest of the settlement essentially frozen in the state it was left in on the night of the earthquake. Further north, in villages such as Visso and Ussita in the Marche region, communal spaces including a swimming pool and an ice rink remain derelict, and local reconstruction has similarly crawled forward: the historic town hall building in Visso was only reopened for building work on 27 July this year. Rome has recently moved to bring the reconstruction period to a formal close. Earlier this month the government approved a new package of measures running until 2029, setting 31 December 2026 as the date on which Italy's national state of emergency for the 2016 earthquake will end, giving way to a "reconstruction phase" under the special commissioner's office. Tax incentives have also been introduced for businesses investing in Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto, along with additional funding for social reconstruction projects. Five years ago, on the earthquake's , then prime minister Mario Draghi travelled to Amatrice to commemorate the victims, at a time when many survivors were already voicing frustration at the slow pace of rebuilding. A decade on, with cranes still dominating the skyline and thousands of residents still living in temporary housing, that frustration in the earthquake zone has only deepened. Photo credit: Alessia Pierdomenico / Shutterstock.com