Pope leads prayers for quake victims

POPE Francis has said he plans to visit an area in Italy struck by a deadly earthquake to bring the people there the “comfort of faith”.

Francis led prayers on Sunday for the inhabitants of an area struck by Wednesday’s powerful earthquake that killed at least 291 people in Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.

Italy’s central Apennine mountains are a seismically-active region that has suffered other earthquake tragedies in the past.

Francis told that crowd at his weekly Sunday address at St Peter’s Square: “Again, I tell those dear populations that the church shares their suffering.”

He said he plans to visit as soon as possible but did not specify a date.

Bulldozers have continued the clear-up operation in one town where 230 people died as investigators try to figure out if negligence in enforcing building codes added to the death toll.

Amatrice bore the brunt of the destruction from the 6.2-magnitude quake while 11 others died in nearby Accumoli and 50 more in Arquata del Tronto, 10 miles north.

Italy’s state museums began a fundraising campaign yesterday, donating Sunday’s proceeds to relief work in the earthquake zone.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini urged Italians to “go to museum in a sign of solidarity with people affected by the earthquake”.

On Twitter, the appeal, one of several cash raising bids, came with the hashtag #museums4italy.