By Silvia Aloisi L'AQUILA, April 10 (Reuters) - Fabio De Felice did not want to leave his frightened grandmother alone after a day of tremors shook her house in Onna, an ancient village of 300 people in central Italy. But those tremors turned out to be forewarnings of the country's deadliest earthquake in nearly 30 years. De Felice, 21, was killed with his grandmother as the quake caught them in their sleep on Sunday, reducing her stone house to a pile of rubble. Had he stayed at his home, a reinforced concrete building, he would still be alive. They were two of the 40 people who died in Onna, the town hardest hit by the disaster. "Granny was afraid. He wanted to keep her company so he went to stay for the night," Fabio's cousin, Emanuela Diterlizi, said as she arrived at a mass funeral for the quake's 289 victims on Friday. "They found them in bed, hugging each other. It's a tragedy," she said, her voice breaking. Hundreds of grieving relatives and survivors gathered in silence at a police academy outside the city of L'Aquila, where 205 wooden coffins were laid out on the parading ground. A white sticker on each coffin identified the person inside. Several small white caskets, containing the bodies of children, sat on top of their mothers' coffins. Some mourners dabbed their red eyes with tissues, others sobbed uncontrollably, hugged and comforted by family members and friends. A young man, his face badly bruised and a large cut stitched up on his forehead, stood in a corner staring vacantly. But as Italy united in national mourning, victims' relatives asked how so many buildings -- not just centuries-old churches and stone houses but even modern apartment blocks -- could fall to pieces in an area know for its high seismic risk."Today I just feel this big sense of void, but there's also anger," said Diterlizi, 25. "The houses should not have been built like that. Onna has been razed to the ground, there is nothing left. Only rocks and stones." Piero Faro, who came to bid his farewell to longtime friend Paola Pugliesi and her son Giuseppe, was also bitter. "Their building just disintegrated. This should not have happened," he said. Survivors in L'Aquila and surrounding towns recounted how big tremors had shaken the area for months before Monday's devastating quake, and were dismissed as not threatening by authorities. "The thing is, when you've lived in this city for 30 years like I have, you get used to it. You think, 'oh the house is moving a bit, but it will go away'," said Angelo Daria, a student, who fled as the walls of his flat gave in. "Then comes this huge roar, and your life changes in 20 seconds."
Mourners attend the state funeral ceremony following the earthquake in Aquila April 10, 2009. Weeping relatives gathered on Friday for a state funeral for victims of Italy's worst earthquake in three ...
