British woman dies in Italian Alps landslide

A British woman crushed to death by a landslide triggered by an earthquake in northern Italy used her dying breath to try to save her boyfriend.

Hashmita Chudasama, 33, was fatally injured in the landslide at the foot of the Italian Alps but managed to tell rescue workers that her Italian boyfriend was also underneath the rubble.

The Italian authorities yesterday called off a search for her boyfriend Stefan Marchetti, 33, saying it was virtually impossible that he would be found alive.

Miss Chudasama, who was born in India but who lived in Leicester, had been on holiday in Italy and was on a trip to the mountains at Gargazzone, between Bolzano and Merano, with Mr Marchetti. They were near the epicentre of the earthquake, which measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale. The tremors also rocked parts of Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Tania Egger, a tourism official in Merano, said: "They were on a trip in the mountains. Her last words were to say there was another person under the rocks."

Friends were understood to have helped with the identification of her body.

At least two other people died in Tuesday's earthquake. One woman died of a heart attack shortly after it occurred on Tuesday evening, and the body of a German tourist was found yesterday in Val D'Ultimo, although rescue teams were not able to reach it.

Another woman remained in a serious condition in hospital with a head injury sustained when she fell from a horse that was frightened by the earthquake. At least three tourists were injured in the mountains of Italy's north eastern Alto Adige region by falling rocks loosened by the quake. However, it caused relatively little damage, despite its size.

Terrified residents poured out into the streets across northern Italy and police said they received dozens of phone calls from tourists and residents seeking information.