Aftershocks hit Italy quake survivors

Aftershocks from the earthquake that killed at least 260 people in central Italy sent new fears through the camps that sheltered thousands of survivors today.

As rescue teams pressed ahead with their searches in the crumbled buildings, almost 28,000 were left homeless living in tents or under open skies.

The quake hit L’Aquila and several towns in central Italy early on Monday, levelling buildings and reducing entire blocks to piles of rubble and dust.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi said 260 people have died, including 16 children.

The first funerals are expected to be held on Friday and the Pope said he was preparing to visit the devastated region.

The Vatican said he would make the trip after Easter Sunday because he did not want to interfere with relief operations.

Mr Berlusconi, speaking in L’Aquila after a third day in the quake area, said nine bodies remained to be identified. He said about 100 injured were in serious condition.

Mr Berlusconi said looting in the quake zone was on the rise and that the government was looking to increase penalties for the crime. He said details were still being worked out, adding the new penalties would be “very severe”.

He also dismissed criticism over his comments to quake survivors that living in a tent is like going camping and that they should go to the beach.

They came during a visit yesterday to one of the tent camps in the central Italian region of Abruzzo.

He said he did not think his remarks were “out of place”, adding the children “could use a smile, a little bit of optimism and playfulness”.

Mr Berlusconi said about 17,700 people left homeless by the quake had found shelter in camps. An additional 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast, bringing the overall number of homeless to almost 28,000.

To shelter the homeless against the chilly nights in the mountains, about 20 tent cities have sprouted in open spaces around L’Aquila and surrounding towns. Field kitchens, medical supplies – and clowns with bubbles to entertain traumatised children – were brought in.

Since the first quake around 430 aftershocks have rumbled through, including some strong ones.

Rescue workers continuing their search still held out hope to find somebody alive.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the rescue efforts would likely continue until Easter Sunday, beyond the period originally indicated by Mr Berlusconi.

“It all depends on the conditions, if the person under the rubble has any air or water,” Cristian Martinez, from the Spanish rescue organisation Unidad Canina, said as his dogs ran across a pile of rubble that had once been a four-storey building in L’Aquila.

He explained that his dogs, which have been sent across the world after quakes and other catastrophes, “would bark if they found a live body and would start digging if they found a dead body”.

So far, the dogs had found no signs of any living human beings in the debris.

“But we don’t give up hope,” he said.

Yesterday rescuers pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.

Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-storey building in central L’Aquila.