Spain mourns quake victims with thousands homeless

LORCA, Spain — Spain on Friday mourned the nine people killed when an earthquake wrecked swathes of the historic southern city of Lorca and forced thousands to flee their homes.Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero headed to Lorca to visit the most devastated areas and attend a funeral mass, along with Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia.Two days of mourning have been declared for the nine dead, including a child, who perished when the quake tore down walls and sent chunks of masonry and bricks flying into the streets. Some buildings were flattened.The Red Cross said the quake forced some 15,000 of the city's 93,000 inhabitants from their homes. Thousands spent their second night away from their residences. But unlike Thursday, when they shivered under blankets outdoors, most were able to sleep in hundreds of tents supplied by the Red Cross and the military. The Red Cross admitted they still lacked enough fold-up canvas beds for all the homeless, many of them poor immigrants from Latin America and north Africa unable to find alternative lodging."We had to treat many who were suffering from the cold as they slept in the open air," said Enrique Garcia, a Red Cross coordinator.Melina, a 33-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant who declined to give her last name, said she slept in a Red Cross tent, but her husband and son spent the night outdoors on plastic chairs."Sleeping in a bed was better but I feel really bad," she said as she waited in line for breakfast rations in the main marketplace."It's not the same as sleeping at home," said Segundo Mendoza, 39, an Ecuadorian father of two. "The tent wasn't warm enough, there was no water, we suffered a lot."He said his family was still unable to return to their flat, which was a "disaster" after the quake.The 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck at 6:47 pm (1647 GMT) Wednesday at a depth of just 10 kilometres (six miles), coming nearly two hours after a smaller 4.4-magnitude quake. Ripping open walls, toppling roofs and crushing cars under tumbling stones, the tre

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