The death toll from the Abruzzo earthquake reached 228 last night as a series of strong aftershocks continued to rattle through the region.

A tremor of 5.6 magnitude spread more panic yesterday evening in L’Aquila, a city once home to about 70,000 people, where the impact was felt the strongest. At least one person was reported killed as a result of it. Monday’s earthquake was between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitude.

All day aftershocks hampered the rescue effort as relatives of the missing waited for news of their loved ones. At one point rescuers looking for more bodies in a collapsed student dormitory in L’Aquila had to run from the rubble as one of the bigger aftershocks hit shortly before midday.

Ollie Hodge, 29, a rugby player from Bristol, who signed up to play for L’Aquila last year, told of his horror as he woke up in the middle of the earthquake, which also killed a teammate.

“Myself and a few of the boys from the club went out to the hospital to help. We were carrying beds down the stairs and carrying people out. You just do what you can in a situation like that. It still hasn’t sunk in yet. The scenes in the centre of town were unreal — it’s like a war zone down there. Absolutely horrendous.”

By yesterday afternoon rescue workers had all but given up hope of pulling any more survivors from the wreckage.

The quake had ripped the student dormitory in two, leaving an ugly crevasse of twisted metal and crumpled air vents. In the afternoon four people were finally located but tearful emergency workers declined to say whether they were alive or dead.

In some areas of the city rescuers were digging by hand. Last night a young girl named Eleonora was pulled alive from the rubble, conscious and wearing pjyamas.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, said that the efforts would continue for two more days “until it is certain that there is no one else alive”. Tent camps provided by civil protection volunteers housed some of the 17,000 left homeless but many spent the night in the chill mountain air without blankets.

David de Angeli stood outside one of the tents, cradling a bandaged hand. He described how he had escaped from his house, scooping up a neighbour’s ten-year-old daughter and fleeing. “I still haven’t heard from my son or my grandson,” he said, bursting into tears and walking away.

Aerial footage showed the scale of the destruction in this city of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architectural treasures. Roofs were missing from modern buildings, old churches had fallen and the walls and other parts of medieval buildings had tumbled to the ground. Officials said that 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed.

Earthquake experts and the Italian media praised the rescue effort and said that the Government had responded well to the catastrophe. But, they said, the real disaster was the country’s continuing failure to take measures to limit earthquake damage and prevent deaths.

“This time the State was there for us,” said La Stampa. It added: “It is unpleasant to reflect on a catastrophe when there are still people to pull out of the rubble, but we have to do so if we are to avoid yet more pain and rage. It is not earthquakes which kill, but badly constructed buildings.”

Franco Barberi, a geologist, said in a television broadcast from a camp for evacuees at L’Aquila that “an earthquake like this in California would not have provoked a single death”.

Scale of the disaster

228 confirmed dead

17 bodies still unidentified

15 missing

50,000 estimated homeless

13,000 estimated number of buildings damaged or destroyed

Source: Times database

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