STRONG aftershocks have damaged two key roads into quake-struck Amatrice, threatening to isolate the tiny Italian hilltop town as hopes fade that firefighters will find any more survivors from the earthquake that killed at least 267 people.

Some crumbled buildings in Amatrice cracked even further after the biggest aftershock of Friday morning struck at 6.28am local time. The US Geological Service said it had a magnitude of 4.7, while the Italian geophysics institute measured it at 4.8.

The shaking ground also damaged one key access bridge to Amatrice, forcing emergency crews to close it.

Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said he is working with authorities to find an alternative bypass to another damaged bridge. “We hope to God it works because otherwise, with the damaged stretch of road, we are without any connection” to the main roads, he said.

Even before the roads were shut down, traffic into and out of Amatrice was horribly congested with emergency vehicles bringing hundreds of rescue crews up to Amatrice and dump trucks carrying tons of concrete, rocks and metal down the single-lane roads.

The aftershock was preceded by more than 50 overnight and was followed by another nine in the next hour – part of the nearly 1,000 aftershocks that have rocked Italy’s Apennine Mountains since the original 6.2 magnitude quake early on Wednesday.

Premier Matteo Renzi has declared a state of emergency and authorised €50 million (£42 million) for immediate quake relief.

The Italian government also declared Saturday a day of national mourning and scheduled a state funeral to be attended by President Sergio Mattarella.

Rescue efforts continued through the night and into Friday, but more than a day-and-a-half had passed since the last person was extracted alive from the rubble.

While Renzi hailed the fact that 215 people had been rescued after the quake, authorities reported a steadily rising death toll that had hit 267 by yesterday morning.

Civil protection operations chief Immacolata Postiglione insisted on Friday the rescue effort had not yet switched to a recovery mission – noting that a person was pulled out alive 72 hours after the 2009 earthquake in nearby L’Aquila.

“I confirm, once again as we have from the start, that the units that are doing the searches and rescues, including with dogs looking for other people trapped in the rubble, are fully active,” she said.

The vast majority of the dead were found in Amatrice. The other dead were from nearby Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.

Flags will fly at half-mast today on all public offices and a state funeral will be held in a gym in Ascoli Piceno for the victims of nearby Arquata del Tronto – to date, 49 of the dead have come from the town and its associated hamlet Pescara del Tronto.

The first private funerals were held yesterday, including one in Pomezia, south of Rome.

Overnight some 2,100 people slept in tent camps, nearly 1,000 more than the first night after Wednesday’s quake.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do now, because I had renovated the house two years ago,” survivor Umberto Palaferri said, showing a photo of his collapsed home on his phone. “It was all new and now I don’t know what to do. I’m 76 and don’t know if I can rebuild it.”