Italian officials on Monday confirmed they had recovered the bodies of two adults buried by the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius that devastated the coastal towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and increasing a death toll currently estimated to reach as high as 16,000, CBS News reports.
“The room was chosen as a refuge by the two people, while waiting for the end of the fall of pumice that had been gradually filling the open spaces for hours in the rest of the house,” officials at the Pompeii dig site said in a statement distributed to media outlets still captivated by the October 3, 79 AD eruption of the towering stratovolcano that still threatens the region with periodic activity.
Prominent navy Commander Pliny the Elder, Herodian princess Drusilla, her son Agrippa, and poet Caesius Bassus are believed to be among the more prominent victims of the 79 AD eruption.