Italy on Friday declared a day of mourning for victims of a devastating earthquake as hopes of finding any more survivors dwindled and the confirmed death toll rose to 267.

Flags will fly at half-mast across the country on Saturday to coincide with funerals for some of the victims.

Immacolata Postiglione, head of the Civil Protection agency’s emergency unit, said no new survivors had been found overnight in the remote mountain villages blitzed by Wednesday’s powerful pre-dawn quake.

At least 387 people have been hospitalized with injuries but no one has been pulled alive from the piles of collapsed masonry since Wednesday evening.

“We will go on searching and digging until we are certain there is no one left,” said Luigi D’Angelo, a local Civil Protection official.

Valerio Checchi, an officer with a forestry police unit, said he expected rescuers to shortly start using bulldozers to clear the debris in a sign virtually all hope of survivors has gone.

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

The mayor of Amatrice said his best guess was that there could be around 15 more people still buried under the ruins of his devastated little town.

Source: AFP