Other children were not so lucky: among those who died in nearby Accumoli were a family of four, including two boys aged eight months and nine years.
Rescue workers were increasingly pessimistic about the chances of finding many more survivors, but many pointed out that the last survivor of the L’Aquila quake was pulled from the rubble 72 hours after it struck.
Emotional residents spoke of their terror during the quake. Picking up emergency provisions from the Red Cross were Maria Atrimala, 48, and her 15-year-old daughter. “We escaped by pure luck, the stairs of the house held and we ran, blindly in the dark and dust,” she said.
“When we got out we could hear the cries of people still trapped and we helped those we could. But we have friends and relatives who didn’t make it. What the future holds, I don’t know.”
Danzante Paoletti lived in Amatrice for 16 years before moving to nearby Sant Angelo, where his house was completely destroyed by the quake, he said.
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Eight people he knew in the area had died, including a young girl: “All friends of mine. Above all else, we feel sadness. But hope must not die. I hope we find so many children and young people who have survived that this place can be reborn.”
Amatrice’s regular population of 2,500 was swollen with visitors before the town’s 50th annual festival to celebrate the amatriciana pasta sauce named after it.
In response to the disaster, more than 600 restaurants across Italy said they were putting the dish on their menus and would donate €2 from each one sold to the Red Cross.