Rescuers face grim task as quake toll rises

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in central Italy increased to 241 on Thursday amid fears that many more corpses would be found in the rubble of devastated mountain villages.

Rescuers sifted through collapsed masonry in the search for survivors.

But their grim mission was clouded by uncertainty about exactly how many people had been staying in communities closest to the epicenter of Wednesday's quake.