Emergency crews pull out last bodies

Emergency crews today pulled the last bodies from the rubble of a Italian school destroyed by an earthquake that killed 29 people, wiping out an entire class.

A day after the deadly quake struck, several more tremors shook the town, sending people screaming into the streets. Grieving relatives fled in panic from the makeshift morgue where they had gone to identify the dead.

Clouds of dust rose as parts of buildings crumbled and all those of the 1,900 residents that remained were asked to evacuate the town.

Enzo Boschi, head of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, said the strongest of the aftershocks had a preliminary reading of 5.3, nearly as powerful as the 5.4 quake that destroyed the school yesterday.

Three people were reported injured by the strongest aftershock, and many people were treated in the streets for shock.

Earlier, police headquarters in Campobasso, near the south-central town of San Giuliano Di Puglia, said a boy was found alive in the school rubble nearly 24 hours after yesterday’s quake struck.

Police later said their information was wrong and that the last survivor was a nine-year-old boy pulled out before dawn.

Fire Chief Mario Morcone said the final death toll from yesterday’s quake was 29, including 26 children and one teacher in the school and two elderly women who were killed when their homes collapsed.

Crews used cranes, sledgehammers, blowtorches and their bare hands to remove the rubble.

When the quake struck yesterday there were 56 children at the school, as well as at least four teachers and two janitors. Many of the children who survived were in the school’s garden celebrating Halloween.

A rescue worker, in hard hat and covered with dust, said most of the dead children were crushed at their desks as the roof crashed down upon them.

“A huge tragedy leaves us with only one certainty. It looks like the first grade class was wiped out,” said a local priest, the Rev Ferdinando Manna.

The school complex had nursery, elementary and middle school students.

Pope John Paul offered prayers for the victims and encouragement to survivors and the rescue crews.

As hope was dwindling for any more survivors, attention started shifting to why the school, built about 50 years ago, collapsed in a quake whose 5.4 magnitude should not have been strong enough to topple buildings built to modern earthquake standards.