Grief erupts as country honors, buries quake dead

Leaders join grieving families in emotional farewell to 35 of the 291 earthquake victims

Mourners in Italy prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as coffins carrying victims of the country's devastating earthquake passed by at a state funeral on Saturday, grieving as one nation after three desperate days of trying to save as many people as possible.

In the central town of Ascoli Piceno, they gathered to bid farewell to 35 of the 291 people confirmed dead so far after the quake that struck a swath of countryside early on Wednesday at the foothills of the central Apennine mountains.