Aftershocks hit rescue effort to find survivors

Determined crews struggle on as death roll reaches 250

Aftershocks in central Italy have rattled residents and rescue workers trying to find more earthquake survivors.

A day after a shallow quake killed 250 people and levelled three small towns, a 4.3 magnitude aftershock sent up plumes of thick dust in the hard-hit town of Amatrice.

The aftershock crumbled already cracked buildings and prompted authorities to close roads and sent another person to the hospital. It was one of the more than 470 temblors that have followedWednesday’s pre-dawn quake.

Firefighters and rescue crews using sniffer dogs

“We will work relentlessly until the last person is found”

worked in teams around the hard-hit areas in central Italy, pulling chunks of cement, rock and metal from mounds of rubble where homes once stood.

Rescuers refused to say when their work would shift from saving lives to recovering bodies, noting that one person was pulled alive from the rubble 72 hours after the 2009 quake in the Italian town of L’Aquila.

“We will work relentlessly until the last person is found, and make sure no one is trapped,” said Lorenzo Botti, a rescue team spokesman.

Worst affected by the quake were the tiny towns of Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, 60 miles northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto, 15 miles further to the east.

Many were left homeless by the scale of the destruction, their homes and apartments declared uninhabitable. Some survivors, escorted by firefighters were allowed to go back inside homes briefly to get essential necessities for what will be an extended absence. “Last night we slept in the car. Tonight, I don’t know,” said Nello Caffini as he carried his sister-inlaw’s belongings on his head after being allowed to go quickly into her home in Pescara del Tronto.

Charitable assistance began pouring into the earthquake zone in traffic-clogging droves on Thursday. Church groups, along with farmers offering donated peaches, pumpkins and plums, sent vans along the one-way road into Amatrice.

CHECKED: Rescuers mark a building with paint signalling the date and time of start and end of the search

Food for emergency workers and quake victims

Rescuers make their way through wrecked houses