Relatives of the missing watched in agony Tuesday as rescuers dug desperately by hand for survivors of Italy's devastating earthquake, jarred by a strong aftershock that drove home the continuing danger. The death toll jumped to 207 as bodies were recovered and identified. Tent camps housed some of the 50,000 left homeless by Italy's worst earthquake in three decades, but many spent the night in the chill mountain air without blankets or covers. Lilly Centofanti waited with her mother on the lawn in front of a partially collapsed university dormitory for word of her 19-year-old younger brother, Davide, who lived on the third floor. Centofanti and her mother comforted each other as relatives called the younger woman's cell phone for updates. “There's no information,” she kept saying. “We're waiting,” she told a reporter. “We only know the shocks go on.” A series of aftershocks have hit of L'Aquila and 26 surrounding towns and cities in the snowcapped Apennine mountains since the quake early Monday, which also left tens of thousands homeless. Tuesday's aftershock appeared strongest around L'Aquila, a city of some 70,000 people. Two buildings in Pettino, a suburb of L'Aquila, collapsed following the aftershock, the news agency ANSA reported, citing fire officials. No one was believed to be inside either building. Rescuers pulled two bodies overnight from the rubble of the four-story dormitory. They ran out, appearing confused, when the 4.9-magnitude aftershock hit at 11:26 A.M. Officials said some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed. Premier Silvio Berlusconi surveyed the devastated region by helicopter and said the rescue efforts would continue for two more days - “until it is certain that there is no one else alive.” Fifteen people were still missing, he said.
