LARINO, Italy, July 14 (UPI) -- The parents of 27 Italian children killed in an earthquake were outraged when a judge acquitted six defendants of shoddy school construction.
The school, located in the town of San Giuliano di Puglia, disintegrated during the October 2002 quake, killing the 27 students and one teacher.
The school was the "only building in the town" to fall, Independent reported Saturday. Trial testimony showed the building's walls been built in violation of basic rules, and there also was a complete "failure to reinforce the foundations."
"What happened at San Giuliano di Puglia represents the worst side of Italy," prosecutor Nicola Magrone said, adding he was convinced the defendants had indeed killed the children. "But in Italy there is a long history of everything that happens being the fault of nature while the people are all saints."
Magrone said an appeal is not out of the question, but he wasn't sure if it was the decent thing to do, to put the parents through an additional ordeal.
