National mourning in Italy for 290 dead left behind the deadly earthquake
National mourning today Italy for 290 dead left behind by the powerful earthquake Wednesday in the central country. Hundreds of rescuers still continuing investigations in ruins, without much hope for locating survivors.
Nine other bodies were recovered today in Amatritse, among the three corpses that were retrieved during the night from the Roma hotel, bringing the death toll only Amatritse at 230, including residents and tourists.
In a gym to 'Ascoli Piceno, in the foothills of the Apennines, an official ceremony began at 11:30 local time (12:30 GMT) in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and senior state officials.
Among 35 coffins of Arkouata and Pescara del Tronto, surrounded by relatives, often wounded themselves, the little coffin for the nine years Julia, the body which has protected her sister Tziortzia five years, one of the last people who came alive from the rubble.
"Sorry if we came too late (...) but I want to know from up there that we did what was possible to get in from there. When you go home at L'Aquila will know that an angel looking out the sky ", writes a rescuer on a paper stuck with scotch tape on the small coffin.
Some families chose, however, not participate in the official ceremony and earlier kidepsoun their loved ones. Another ceremony, without the bodies, scheduled for next week for victims of Akoumoli and mainly Amatritse.
