South Korea’s vice foreign minister will visit the Italian Embassy in Seoul Tuesday to offer his condolences to the victims of the 6.2-magnitude quake that rocked the European country last week, the ministry said.
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Representatives of diplomatic corps in Azerbaijan, public figures and government officials have signed the book.
Wails echoed under the roof of the open-sided tent as Pompili read aloud the names of the 242 people killed in the towns of Amatrice and Accumoli at the start of the service.
Investigators are looking into work done on the bell tower in the town of Accumoli, which was recently restored but collapsed during the quake onto the home of a family of four, killing them all.
An Italian bishop says Pope Francis was among the many in Rome jolted awake by last week’s natural disaster and immediately went to celebrate a Mass for those suffering in the catastrophe.
Thirty-seven caskets will be on hand for the state funeral being celebrated in quake-struck Amatrice. They and others have been claimed by relatives and buried elsewhere or are awaiting private funeral services.
Some two more bodies have been pulled out from the rubble of the worst-hit town Amatrice, making the death toll to 231 in the region, and 10 people were still missing in the area.
Italian quake survivors have rebelled in anger over the government’s plan to hold a state funeral for their loved ones in an airport hangar in a distant town and let them watch it on screens in their emergency tent camp. About 8,000 to 10,000 Romanians live in the quake zone, many working in agriculture or as carers.
Italy on Tuesday held a mass funeral for some victims of last week’s quake amid the ruins of Amatrice, the small town that bore the brunt of the disaster. Many work in agriculture or as domestic helpers and caretakers for the elderly.
Italian news reports, meanwhile, have said that many other buildings in the area were flagged as being at high seismic risk, and yet nothing was done to them despite having funds made available. But he also warned that the rebuilding effort must not become a “looting” of state coffers.
The damaged cultural properties span several quake-affected regions, including Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Abruzzo, according to Franceschini. Tuesday’s ceremony had been expected to involve 38 victims, but at the last minute the number was reduced without any explanation.
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Townspeople yelled they wanted to have the service in Amatrice, a medieval town in the central Apennine mountains devastated by the quake. Italy also observed a second day of national mourning following the August 24 temblor that flattened villages in central Italy.
