Updated | Mass funeral for 35 victims of Italy earthquake

A mass funeral has taken place in Italy for some of the 290 people who died when an earthquake hit mountainous central regions.

The 35 victims from the town of Arquata were mourned at a sports hall in the regional capital of Ascoli Piceno. The coffins, which were laid out in rows on the floor, included two painted white for two children killed.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President Sergio Mattarella were among those attending the funeral. While delivering his sermon, Bishop Giovanni d’Ercole urged those affected by the earthquake not to lose courage.

“Together, above all we will restore life to our communities, starting from our traditions and from the rubble of death,” he said.

The coffins will be taken for burial to a cemetery near Arquata, a local official told Ansa news agency.

More aftershocks were registered in Italy in the early hours of Saturday, the strongest with a magnitude of four. The ground beneath Accumoli, another severely affected village, sank 20cm as a result of the earthquake.

Italy is today observing a national day of mourning, with flags flying at half masta cross the country.

A state of emergency has been declared in affected areas and Renzi has set aside an initial €50 million in emergency aid. No survivors have been found since Wednesday evening, but the authorities have pledged to continue the search until they are certain everyone is accounted for.

Forestry police officer Valerio Chechhi said he expected rescuers to shortly start using mechanical diggers to move debris, in a sign that virtually all hope of finding survivors has gone.

“We will still use thermal devices that can detect the presence of human bodies,” Chechhi said.

A local gymnasium has been transformed into a chapel, where bereaved relatives came to pray in front of thirty coffins, including a small, white casket for Giulia, a nine-year-old girl whose body protected her five-year-old sister, Giorgia- one of the last people to be pulled from the rubble alive in Pescara del Tronto.

The first funerals were held Friday in Pomezia, south of Rome, home of six of the victims, including an eight-year-old boy.

Over 2,000 people who spent the night in hastily-erected tented villages were shaken by a 4.8 magnitude aftershock just after 6am on Friday morning.

More than 900 aftershocks have rattled the region since Wednesday's quake, which had a magnitude of 6.0-6.2 and triggered the collapse of hundreds of old buildings across dozens of tiny communities playing host to far more people than usual because of the summer holidays.

Quake experts have estimated that the cost of the short-term rescue effort and mid- to long-term reconstruction could reach € 1 billion.

Renzi's government and local authorities are now facing questions as to why there were so many deaths in a sparsely-populated area only a few years after a 2009 earthquake in the nearby city of L'Aquila left 300 people dead.

That disaster, just 50 kilometres to the south, underscored the region's vulnerability to seismic events, but preparations for a new earthquake have now been exposed as inadequate.

"Italy should have a plan that is not just limited to the management of emergency situations," Renzi said.

He said that proofing centuries-old buildings against the risk of collapse in the event of a quake would be difficult but that more could be done.