The sandy soil in the region of Lorca worsened the impact of the earthquakes The earthquake-stricken town of Lorca, Spain, is holding a funeral Mass for four victims of Wednesday’s disaster.
Nine people were killed when a magnitude-5.1 quake struck the town, just two hours after one measuring 4.4.
Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia are attending the funeral, held in a large hangar-style structure.
Thousands of buildings in the historic town have been damaged or destroyed and many residents have left.
Some have gone to stay with friends and family in other areas because their homes are unsafe or they fear aftershocks.
Troops and emergency workers have put up hundreds of tents for about 3,000 homeless people still in Lorca.
The funeral Mass is not being held in a church as earthquake damage has made them unsafe to enter.
Before the service began, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife consoled grieving mourners seated in front of four wooden coffins.
Hundreds of people are attending the service.
Funerals for other victims are being held elsewhere in Lorca.
Almost every building in the town of about 93,000 residents has been damaged, says our correspondent.
Inspection teams are going house to house assessing the damage before declaring which buildings are safe to return to.
On Thursday some residents were briefly allowed back into their homes to salvage what belongings they could from the rubble. Spanish TV pictures showed many were in tears.
Shops, restaurants and schools have been closed and a steady stream of cars left the town, in the Murcia region of southern Spain.
Bulldozers have been clearing streets of rubble and crushed cars. Many ancient buildings were among those badly damaged.
Many of those residents left behind are immigrant labourers who have nowhere else to go.
The Spanish government has deployed about 800 personnel to the town, including emergency units, troops and police, Mr Zapatero said on Thursday.
Seismologists say they expect smaller aftershocks in the area, which lies close to the geological fault line separating Europe and Africa.
The quakes were shallow and caused significant damage despite being relatively low in magnitude. The region’s sandy soil also made the impact worse.
Many of the town’s buildings may have had pre-existing structural problems, said Luis Suarez, head of Spain’s College of Geologists.
The quake was the deadliest tremor to hit Spain since 1956 when an earthquake killed 11 people in Albolote, Granada.
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