Daily News Channel
The youngest hadn’t even lived half a year. The oldest had lived nearly a hundred of them. The official government list of victims from this week’s earthquake in central Italy reached 287 on Friday, when Italians planned a mass state funeral to lay the victims to rest.
The arduous work of combing through rubble and treating the wounded of this medieval city continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning, even as the death toll from the powerful earthquake that rocked the area continued to climb. By late Tuesday night, 235 people had been confirmed dead, according to the Italian Civil Protection Agency, which was helping with recovery efforts in L’Aquila, about 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Rome.
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy early Monday, less than six hours after another quake hit the northern part of the country, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A spokesman with the Italian civil protection agency said had received reports of collapsed buildings, and officials believe there were possible casualties.