The Vajont Dam disaster claimed the lives of almost 2,000 people, including 487 children, in the Piave valley of northern Italy on the night of 9 October 1963.
The disaster occurred when a vast landslide collided into the artificial reservoir formed by the 260-metre high dam over the Vajont river which flows through the Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions.
The landslide, comprising around 260 million cubic metres of rocks from Monte Toc, created a massive inland tsunami that reached up to 200 metres above the dam.
La sera del #9ottobre 1963 dal versante nord del monte Toc si staccano 260 milioni di metri cubi di roccia che, cadendo nel bacino della diga del Vajont, causano un'ondata che distrugge i paesi sottostanti. In video un breve racconto attraverso immagini di repertorio RAI. pic.twitter.com/0cPNsd6iXq
Electricity in the surrounding area went off suddenly at 22.39, moments before the giant tidal wave - travelling at 80 km p/h - ripped through the narrow valley below.
The wall of water engulfed the nearby town of Longarone, drowning around 80 per cent of its inhabitants, including more than 300 entire families.
It also caused widespread deaths and destruction in the neighbouring villages of Faè, Pirago, Rivalta, and Villanova, with many of the bodies never found.
The Vajont Dam disaster occurred on the night of 9 October 1963.
The dam, which remained largely intact after the disaster, was designed by Italian engineer Carlo Semenza in the 1920s, however construction by the Società Adriatica di Elettricità (SADE) did not begin until the late 1950s.
The lake created by the dam was intended to generate hydroelectric power to meet growing demand from the rapidly-industrialising north.
However authorities had dismissed numerous warnings that Monte Toc, to the southern side of the basin, was geologically unstable.
The Vajont dam disaster devastated the Piave valley.
The 262-metre high dam, hailed as the tallest of its kind in the world, was inaugurated in 1960, and two years later it was nationalised by the Italian ministry of public works.
The dam still stands to this day however the reservoir has never been refilled.
Il 9 ottobre 1963 è una data che difficilmente possiamo dimenticare. Il disastro del Vajont è una tragedia che poteva e doveva essere impedita, provocata dall’incuria dell’uomo, che ha lasciato una ferita profonda nella nostra Nazione. Rischi e pericoli che erano stati…
Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said that what happened in Vajont on 9 October 1963 was a "tragedy that could and should have been prevented", blaming the disaster on "human negligence".
"After 61 years we carry that scar in our memory and use it as a warning so that such calamities never happen again" - Meloni wrote on X - "Italy does not forget."
Last year Italian president Sergio Mattarella marked the 60th anniversary of the Vajont tragedy by visiting the Fortogna cemetery to commemorate the victims.
Ahead of the 61st anniversary, Veneto president Luca Zaia on Tuesday said the pain of the disaster is "still alive in so many people, so many families", describing it as a "still open wound".
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