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Italians have begun the grim work of burying their dead as crews continue to search the rubble of L'Aquila, devastated by this week's magnitude-6.3 earthquake.

The first funerals began Wednesday as bells rang out across the region. Among those mourned was 24-year-old Giuseppe Chiavaroli, a soccer player for Fiorentina's lower division team. The quake also killed his girlfriend.

At his funeral, players from his team carried his casket, covered by his jersey.

"We will try to be strong," his father Tomasso Ciavaroli told The Associated Press.

The majority of the 272 dead will be honoured on Good Friday, after the Vatican granted a special dispensation to allow a funeral Mass on that day. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will lead the ceremony.

Normally, the Roman Catholic Church does not allow Mass to be celebrated on Good Friday, which marks the crucifixion of Jesus.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday that 17,700 people were left homeless by the quake and are being housed in tent cities, and another 10,000 are being put up in hotels, bringing the total to almost 28,000.

CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy said rescue crews had reason to cheer on Tuesday when they pulled a 98-year-old survivor from the rubble of her home.

"She was found more than 30 hours after the original earthquake and she was absolutely fine. There was space in the area where she was trapped and she spent her time crocheting," Kennedy told Canada AM from L'Aquila.

"Sadly these types of stories are becoming more and more rare."

Four students are believed to be among the dead. They were trapped in the rubble of the local university. By Wednesday, crews were no longer sifting through the rubble by hand, but were using heavy machinery to move to remains of the crumbled dormitory.

"Unless there is a miracle, I've been told (by rescuers) that they probably are dead," university rector Ferdinando Di Orio told The Associated Press.

Following the initial, powerful tremor on Monday, there have been roughly 430 aftershocks. On Tuesday evening, a strong aftershock dumped debris on residents and rescuers who were trying to find the missing students.

As rescue workers continued searching through the debris, they pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.

Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive Tuesday in the ruins of the five-story building in central L'Aquila.

Kennedy said the struggle to find the remaining missing quake victims is taking a toll -- but every time a survivor is found there is a "euphoric" sense of relief.

That happened on Wednesday when 20-year-old Eleonora Calesini, who had been trapped for 42 hours, was pulled alive from a collapsed building in L'Aquila.

"You cannot imagine the hard work, the really visceral hard labour of digging away in this rubble trying to find survivors, so every time it happens it really is remarkable," Kennedy said.

People who have lost their homes are for the most part being sheltered in 20 tent cities in the mountainous region.

Field kitchens and medical supplies were brought in to care for the displaced.

In Toronto, 10 different Italian-Canadian organizations banded together to form the Abruzzo Earthquake Relief Committee.

Pal Di Iulio, president and CEO of Villa Charities, told reporters the group has already raised at least $60,000.

There are at least 500,000 people in the GTA, with about 75,000 who can trace their roots back to the earthquake-afflicted Abruzzo region.

Canadians wanting to donate funds for the relief effort can now do so via the Canadian Red Cross.

The agency announced Wednesday afternoon that it will collect donations from Canadians to be passed on to the Italian Red Cross Society.

"Over the last few days we have received hundreds of calls from concerned Canadians seeking to help," Canadian Red Cross secretary general Conrad Sauv� said in a news release. "Canadians always respond immediately with great generosity."

Donations can be made at www.redcross.ca or by calling 1-800-418-1111. Cheques can be mailed to the Canadian Red Cross, earmarked "Italian Earthquake," and can be mailed to: Canadian Red Cross National Office, 170 Metcalfe Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, Ont., K2P 2P2.