Pope visits quake-ravaged Italian towns

ONNA, Italy, April 28 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI met Tuesday with survivors of an April 6 earthquake that killed 300 people in central Italy.

The pontiff visited the towns of Onna and L'Aquila, CNN reported.

The magnitude 6.3 quake left tens of thousands of people homeless.

In Onna, the pope embraced some children as the residents welcomed him.

"I have come here personally to this splendid and hurt land, which is living days of great pain and precariousness, to express in the most direct way my closeness," the pope said.

The pope then went to L'Aquila, near the earthquake's epicenter, where he planned to pray at the Basilica of Collemaggio, in which Pope Celestine V has been buried since 1327. The basilica's dome collapsed during the earthquake.

The pope planned also to meet with students from a dormitory in which eight students were killed. He also expected to meet briefly with parish priests and mayors in the region.