Watch this: mini-drone spots looter inside church damaged by powerful earthquake in northern Italy

On May 20 a powerful earthquake followed by a second major tremor on May 29, hit northern Italy (especially Emilia Romagna region).  The death toll of the quakes is 17 and 350 are the injured ones.

Furthermore, more than 15,000 people were made temporarily homeless as several buildings collapsed or were severely damaged in what is the deadliest quake in Italy since L’Aquila in 2009.

Among the other assets involved in the rescue operations, providing in-flight surveys and collect imagery of the damaged buildings, there is also a quadrotor mini-drone, produced by the Italdron, a small Italian company founded by three friends.

Equipped with small high-definition camera, the tiny ‘bot is controlled with a sort of big remote control (see some images here).

It provides low-quality live video feeds even if it records HD footage as the ones you can see below.

The first video shows what was later identified as a looter (highlighted, min 01:00) moving inside a collapsed church at San Felice sul Panaro, near Modena.

Here’s another video recorded by a Italdron, showing the damage caused by the devastating quakes on May 20 and May 29.

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.