Italy’s government has heeded the anger of quake survivors and will hold a state funeral for numerous 290 dead in Amatrice, the town hardest-hit by the quake, instead of at an airport hangar 65 kilometers (40 miles) away.
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Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos was also there to remember the Romanian nationals who died in the quake.
More than two dozen coffins were laid out in a marquee on Tuesday ahead of a state funeral for some of the victims of an quake which levelled communities in central Italy last week, killing at least 292 people.
Numerous dead from Amatrice, however, are still awaiting identification in a refrigerated morgue in an airport hangar in Rieti, 65 kilometers (40 miles) away. Relatives placed bouquets on the caskets and sat next to them quietly as rain fell outside. Eleven people were killed in Accumoli, a small town near Amatrice, both in the Lazio region which includes Rome, while 50 people were killed by the quake in the neighboring Le Marche region.
Last week, a stream of ambulances brought more than 100 victims in body bags from Amatrice and another hard-hit town, Accumoli, to the airport at Rieti, 65 kilometers (40 miles) away.
The funeral will be held at the edge of Amatrice’s obliterated medieval town center, on the grounds of a Catholic retreat home for elderly and others seeking a quiet respite in the mountains.
Bulldozers with huge claws pulled down dangerously overhanging ledges Sunday in Italy’s quake-devastated town of Amatrice as investigators worked to figure out if negligence or fraud in building codes had added to the quake’s high death toll.
Nearly 30 people died in earthquakes in northern Italy in 2012 and more than 300 in the city of L’Aquila in 2009.
But grieving residents rebelled at plans to let them watch it on TV or be bussed to Rieti.
However, many of those killed were tourists, and they’re remains have been claimed by family members who are opting for private funerals. The bodies of at least 10 more people are still believed to be under rubble.
A number of foreigners were among the dead, including 11 Romanians and three Britons. Some of the buildings that collapsed had recently been renovated.
Some 8,000 to 10,000 Romanians live in the area where the quake struck.
The European Commission is ready to grant budget flexibility for natural disaster spending, but only in the short term as was done for the Abruzzo and Emilia quakes in 2009 and 2012, an EC spokeswoman said Monday.
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In the centre of the town, which was voted previous year one of Italy’s most handsome, crews continued to dig for up to 10 bodies believed still under mounds of rubble left by the 6.2-magnitude quake.
