Italy mourns as state funeral held for victims of powerful Amatrice earthquake
As death toll reaches 290, rescuers say there is now little hope of finding any more survivors from the country’s worst earthquake in seven years
Weeping relatives hugged each other and reached out to touch the simple wooden coffins at a state funeral held on Saturday for some of the 290 people killed in an earthquake this week.
Amongst the 35 coffins laid out in a sports hall were small caskets holding the bodies of an 18-month-old baby and a nine-year-old girl, two of the 21 children who are known to have died when the quake hit central Italy early on Wednesday.
Don’t be afraid to bewail your suffering, we have seen so much suffering. But I ask you not to lose your courage
“Don’t be afraid to bewail your suffering, we have seen so much suffering. But I ask you not to lose your courage,” Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole said in a homily in the hall, which was packed with grieving families and the nation’s top politicians.
“Only together can we rebuild our houses and churches. Above all, together we can give life back to our communities,” he said, speaking in front of a dusty crucifix salvaged from one of dozens of churches devastated by the quake.
Even as the funeral Mass was being held, rescuers kept searching through the rubble of the worst hit town, Amatrice, although they acknowledged they had little hope of finding any more survivors from Italy’s worst earthquake in seven years.
