A priest and nun were among those rescued after a massive earthquake struck central Italy last week. Fr Krzysztof Kozlowski, from Poland, was trapped in his destroyed home in Accumoli on Wednesday before finally being pulled out several hours later. His neighbours were all killed. “Even as I was waiting for help, for someone to bring me out of the apartment, I could feel the tremors. I was afraid they could destroy whatever was left of my house.” His rescue, he said, was a “great miracle”. “I was miraculously saved, rescued by a rescue team. I was born anew,” Fr Kozlowski said. An Albanian nun, 32-year-old Sister Marjana Lleshi, also feared she would die after her convent collapsed. When she woke up covered in dust and bleeding, she cried for help but no one responded. She told Associated Press (AP): “I started sending messages to friends saying to pray for me and to pray for my soul and I said goodbye to them forever.” She was rescued by a young man who worked at the care home for the elderly which her convent ran. Sister Marjana, a member of the Sisters of the Handmaidens of the Lord, told AP: “I had said ‘adieu’, and in the end it wasn’t an adieu.” Just hours after the earthquake struck, Pope Francis led 11,000 people in praying the rosary in St Peter’s Square. During the prayer service, which replaced the weekly general audience, six Vatican firefighters were already on their way to the town of Amatrice, about 85 miles east of Rome, to help search for victims under the rubble. The Pope said: “Having heard the mayor of Amatrice say, ‘the town no longer exists’ and knowing that there are children among the dead, I am deeply saddened.”