Earthquake woman saved after 23 hours trapped in the rubble

A student buried for 23 hours was pulled alive today from the rubble of her university which was destroyed by Italy's devastating earthquake.

Recovery workers and bystanders stopped to cheer and applaud as firefighters freed 24-year-old Marta Valente. She was taken to hospital where doctors were confident she would recover fully.

A firefighter involved in the rescue said: "It was a very delicate operation as she had several beams across her body but we managed to get to her. We also believe there are other people trapped."

As Miss Valente was pulled out a couple looked on in tears and pleaded with rescuers to carry on digging: "Our daughter is under there, please, please find her."

Work immediately resumed to comb through the wreckage of L'Aquila's hall of residence where at least five more people are feared to have been trapped when the five-storey building collapsed. Outside many of its former residents gathered, hugging and in tears, as they waited for news of their friends who had not been able to escape as the tremors hit.

"We managed to come down with other students but we had to sneak through a hole in the stairs," said Luigi Alfonsi, 22.

"I was in bed - it was like it would never end as I heard pieces of the building collapse around me. There was water gushing out of broken water pipes, and the corridor which led to the stairs was partially blocked when a piece of the wall came down."

There were 179 confirmed dead and up to 200 more missing in the city of L'Aquila, the epicentre of the earthquake which measured 6.3 magnitude.

Officials said 1,950 firefighters were helping with the rescue effort, as well as four helicopters and satellite communications equipment. Also present were Red Cross teams and mountain rescue staff who specialise in searching collapsed buildings, while a unit of sniffer dogs was also dispatched.

Hopes of finding survivors in the rubble of ravaged houses were beginning to fade -although civil defence workers said there had been cases elsewhere in the world where people had survived for 15 days.

The quake hit L'Aquila, in the Abruzzo region, early yesterday and today there were still aftershocks. The largest was at 1.15am which measured 4.8 magnitude and sent rescue workers and bystanders dashing for safety as loose masonry tumbled to the ground.

The village of Onna was one of the worst-hit areas, with officials saying that not one child was left alive after virtually all buildings were razed to the ground. At least 39 people are thought to have died there and coffins were laid in fields as grieving relatives gathered around them.

At least 100,000 people were made homeless and many spent the night in tents and caravans that were set up in the disaster zone. Some people were complaining that tents had still not arrived and been erected with rain and temperatures of 4C adding to the problem.

Others chose to sleep in their cars. One survivor said: "I feel safer in my car then in the tent. My house is a ruin and I can't go back there. I don't know what we are going to do. Everyone is just so scared." Some said they slept in cars to keep an eye on their wrecked homes because there had been cases of looting, with police making arrests. Officers patrolled the wrecked streets keeping an eye on the devastated houses.

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was due to go to L'Aquila later today and last night announced that funds of more than 30 million euros would be made available for the disaster zone. He warned survivors not to return to their homes.