State funeral set for Amatrice after quake survivors rebel

A firefighter cuddles his dog as rescuers continue searching through the rubble in Amatrice, central Italy, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016 after last Wednesday's earthquake. (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP) (The Associated Press)

A firefighter stands amid rubble as he watches the bell tower of Amatrice, central Italy, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Italian authorities are pondering how to provide warmer, less temporary housing for quake homeless living in tents in the Apennine Mountains region. Nearly 2,700 people whose homes collapsed or left unsafe by the Aug. 24 temblor now stay in 58 tent camps or other shelters arranged by the Civil Protection agency. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) (The Associated Press)

Firefighters carry personal belongings retrieved from houses, in Amatrice, central Italy, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016 after last Wednesday's earthquake. With thousands left homeless after Wednesday's earthquake, authorities are debating how to provide warmer, sturdier housing for them besides the rows of emergency blue tents set up in the Apennine Mountains, where even summer nights can get chilly. (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP) (The Associated Press)

Construction crews have worked through the night to build a tent complex to host an Italian state funeral in quake-devastated Amatrice after residents denounced the government's original plan to hold the service in a distant airport hangar.

The funeral late Tuesday for more than 200 of the 292 victims takes place on the edge of Amatrice's obliterated medieval center on the grounds of a Catholic retreat for the elderly. Italy also observed a second day of national mourning following the Aug. 24 temblor that flattened villages in central Italy.

Initially, authorities planned to hold the funeral in the provincial capital of Rieti and let survivors watch it on TV. Residents already battling grief and trauma rebelled and Premier Matteo Renzi, sensing a public relations disaster, reversed course.