Search for quake victims on through Easter

L'AQUILA, Italy, April 8 (UPI) -- Rescue teams will search through the Easter weekend for people trapped beneath rubble left by a ruinous earthquake in L'Aquila and nearby towns, officials said.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday at least 260 people, including 16 children, died in Monday's 6.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Arbuzzo region's capital, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

The area is about 70 miles northeast of Rome.

Berlusconi expressed "full confidence" in the 8,500 rescuers, saying they were doing a "splendid job."

The city's archbishop will celebrate a funeral mass for quake victims Friday, coinciding with Good Friday ceremonies, Berlusconi said. The government said a national day of mourning soon would be declared.

Powerful aftershocks hampered search-and-rescue operations Tuesday in L'Aquila and surrounding towns where the 6.3-magnitude quake struck a day earlier, ANSA said.

Prefabricated housing has been erected to accommodate the tens of thousands of people left homeless by the earthquake that struck in the overnight hours Monday, CNN reported. Officials said about 20,000 houses needed to be inspected before residents could return.

In L'Aquila, rescuers on Tuesday pulled a 20-year-old woman who spent 42 hours beneath the rubble. Dr. Emanuela Troiani Sevi, working a field hospital in the region's capital, told CNN two other survivors had been extracted earlier.