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Italian Scientists on trial over failure to warn of earthquake

A group of Italian scientists went on trial Tuesday for failing to predict an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009 despite signs of increased seismic activity in the area.

©Reuters
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The seven defendants, six scientists and one government official, are accused of manslaughter in a case that some say raises fundamentally important issues of risk assessment.

Prosecutors say residents around the city of L'Aquila in the mountainous Abruzzo region should have been warned to flee their homes in the days before the quake.

The injured parties are asking for 50 million euros in damages.

The defendants were members of a panel which had met six days before the 6th April quake to assess the risks, after hundreds of tremors had shaken the medieval university city.

At that meeting, a committee analysed data from the low-magnitude tremors and determined that the activity was not a prelude to a major earthquake.

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