Desperate survivors dug with hands to find children’s bodies
A MASS funeral will be held for victims of Italy’s earthquake today, as tragic stories emerged of survivors digging in the rubble with their bare hands and coming across the bodies of their own children.
With the death toll at 278 and fears that it will rise further, today has been declared a day of national mourning.
The mass funeral for 45 victims will be held in a basilica in the town of Ascoli Piceno, not far from the epicentre of the quake, which struck in the early hours of Wednesday and left a series of towns and villages in ruins.
The funeral will be attended by Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, and Matteo Renzi, the prime minister, and flags will fly at half-mast across the country.
Mr Renzi has declared a state of emergency for the three regions hit by the earthquake and released an initial tranche of €50 million in aid.
More than 230 people have been pulled out of the rubble alive but hopes that more survivors would be found were receding by the hour.
Nearly 400 people are in hospital with injuries, 40 of whom are in a critical condition.
Around 2,500 people have been left homeless and are sleeping in their cars or in tents set up by the emergency services.
“We will go on searching and digging until we are certain there is noone left,” said Luigi D’Angelo, from the Civil Protection Department, which is overseeing more than 4,000 police, soldiers and rescue experts who are still combing the wreckage for signs of life.
Their work has been made even more dangerous than normal by the 1,000 aftershocks that have hit the region, including a tremor of magnitude 4.8 early yesterday.
The aftershock caused already damaged buildings to collapse in Amatrice, a medieval hill-top town where about 200 people died.
A bridge leading to the town had to be closed after it was badly damaged by the aftershocks, making the rescue and relief operation even more challenging.
Sergio Pirozzi, the town’s mayor, said he believed about 15 people were still buried under the rubble.
“Only a miracle can bring our friends back alive from the rubble, but we are still digging because many are missing,” he said.
As the human cost of the tragedy was counted, the Italian government said that nearly 300 culturally important sites had either collapsed or been seriously damaged.
A paramedic who worked at the town’s hospital dug his two dead children out of the rubble, it emerged yesterday.
Carlo Grossi saved his ex-wife with the help of the family’s dog.
But as he clawed through the debris, he came across the lifeless bodies of his son, Franco, 23, and his daughter, Anna, 21. “The earthquake took them away from me in their sleep and there was nothing I could do for them,” he said.
In a similar tragedy, a senior police officer found the body of his son, also amid the rubble and dust of Amatrice.