Officials with the Civil Protection Authority gave the 290 figure during a televised news conference.
Advertisement
As questions mount over the deaths of almost 300 people, prosecutor Giuseppe Saieva indicated that property owners who commissioned suspected sub-standard work could be held responsible for contributing to the quake’s deadly impact. “They call it fate but if these buildings had been constructed as they are in Japan they wouldn’t have collapsed”.
Italy has promised to rebuild the shattered communities and has said it will learn from the mistakes of the reconstruction following a similar quake in the nearby city of L’Aquila in 2009, where much of the center is still out of bounds. Critics blame bureaucracy but others maintain that independent-minded villagers will always find the cheapest way of getting their renovations done, whatever the risks. “And post-earthquake reconstruction is a tasty morsel for criminal organizations and committees”.
Roberti noted he wasn’t involved in the local prosecutors’ probes into last week’s quake.
Museums across Italy donated proceeds from their ticket sales on Sunday to help the rebuilding effort, while top flight soccer teams held a minute’s silence before their weekend matches out of respect for the victims. The idea is to use art for art – harnessing the nation’s rich artistic heritage to help recover and restore other objects of beauty in the hard-hit towns. Frances D’Emilio in Rome contributed.
A man, who was injured in the town of Arquata del Tronto, receiving treatment at a hospital in Perugia, died from serious injuries.
The country’s prime minister and president both attended a funeral for 35 victims on Saturday.
“It was supposed to be the day that the town of Amatrice was going to hold the 50 annual festival of its famous pasta dish, bucatini all’ Amatriciana”.
Multiple ambulances were also bringing the dead to an airport hangar in the provincial capital of Rieti, where four big white refrigerated trucks created a makeshift morgue to which relatives came in a steady stream Friday.
As the prosecutor issued his threats, nine more bodies were dug out Saturday by emergency crews from the rubble of Amatrice, which so far has accounted for 230 of those killed midweek.
The rescue efforts continue through the aftershocks, though hopes of finding more people alive are quickly fading.
The number still missing is uncertain, due to the many visitors seeking a last taste of summer in the cool hill towns when the quake struck.
Hundreds of people have also been left homeless by the quake, with many spending their nights in tent cities and a gym in Amatrice.
This 1997 quake was part of a series known as the Umbria-Marche seismic sequence, which included eight events of magnitudes greater than 5.0 in the two months between September and November of that year, including the quakes that damaged the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. And the thicker walls and stone piers that are features of many modern-day quake-proof buildings, were also included in plans drawn up by Renaissance architect Pirro Ligorio in the late 16th century, after southern Italy was devastated by an natural disaster that caused 2,000 deaths.
Firefighters operate a drone to survey damages in the church of the village of Cossito, central Italy, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016.
Advertisement
One aftershock collapsed the only northern entrance to Amatrice, the small Tre Occhi Bridge, blocking rescue vehicles and ambulances.
