A mass funeral for nearly 200 victims of Italy’s worst earthquake in 30 years will be held on Saturday as the country observes a national day of mourning for the 287 killed in the disaster.
Nearly 200 wooden coffins, many of them covered by bouquets of flowers and photos of the dead, were laid out in four rows on the parade ground of a police academy in the mountain city of L’Aquila, which bore the brunt of Monday’s 6,3 magnitude quake.
”We thank the people of Abruzzo for their seriousness, civility, dignity and composure,” said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who travelled to L’Aquila for the funeral. ”Today we pay homage to their dead, who are our dead.”
More than 2 000 people are due to attend the funeral, which will be led by the Vatican’s second most senior priest, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Across Italy, flags were flown at half mast and in Rome many shops and businesses displayed signs saying they would close during the funeral.
Relatives of the victims arrived from early in the morning for the funeral, due to start at 11am (9am GMT), some kissing the coffins or sitting before them in silent prayer. Several small white caskets, containing the bodies of children, sat on top of their mothers’ coffins.
Piero Faro, who came to pay his respects to family friend Paola Pugliesi (65) who died with her son Giuseppe (45) told Reuters: ”There is a lot of sadness today, but also a lot of anger. Their building simply disintegrated. This should not have happened.”
The central Italian region of Abruzzo was hit by further violent aftershocks through the night, which damaged buildings and scared the 17 000 people left homeless who are now sheltered in tent villages.
Rescue efforts are winding down as hopes of pulling more survivors from the rubble fade.
”The search is almost over,” Luca Spoletini, spokesman for the Civil Protection agency, told Reuters.
The funeral required a special dispensation from Pope Benedict, who plans to visit Abruzzo soon, because mass is not usually celebrated on Good Friday in the Catholic church. There will also be an Islamic funeral for six Muslim victims. – guardian.co.uk