| REUTERS photos |
Italy marked a day of national mourning on Saturday for 290 people killed in a quake that devastated parts of its mountainous heart, holding a state funeral for 35 of the victims.
As political leaders gathered for the funeral Mass, rescuers kept searching through the rubble of the worst hit town, Amatrice, even though they had little hope of finding more survivors from Italy’s worst quake in seven years.
Nine more bodies were recovered from the town on Saturday, including three corpses that were pulled overnight from the crumpled Hotel Roma, bringing the death toll in Amatrice alone to 230 residents and tourists.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella flew to the town by helicopter on Saturday to see the damage for himself before traveling on to the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno for the funeral service held in a sports center.
Some 35 varnished wood coffins were lined up in sports hall, including white caskets containing the remains of two of the 21 children killed in the disaster. The youngest victim was five months old. The oldest was 93.
Foreigners who died in the calamity included six Romanians, three Britons, a Spanish woman, a Canadian and an Albanian. The area is popular with vacationers and local authorities are still struggling to pin down how many visitors were there when the quake hit.
Mourners gathered in Ascoli Piceno hours before the service was due to begin to pay their respects.