Spain’s prime minister has attended the funeral of four people killed in Wednesday night's earthquake in which nine people lost their lives.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier visited the damaged area and pledged the government will help Lorca rebuild and return to normal as soon as possible.
At one point Mr Zapatero stopped to watch as crews tore away loose chunks of concrete from the tops of buildings and let them crash to the ground.
“It is my conviction that we are going to meet this test,” he said during the visit. “The earthquake was hard and strong. But this country is stronger. Its desire for solidarity and reconstruction are stronger.”
Mr Zapatero, Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, joined mourners at today's funeral mass for four of the dead.
The prince and princess hugged relatives and shook their hands as they slowly made their way along a long row of mourners. They bent down to chat with people at the Mass celebrated in a trade centre, part of which has been turned into a makeshift refugee camp.
At the funeral Mass, there were only four coffins in part because some of the families of the deceased wanted private funerals, officials said.
The Spanish cabinet is to approve aid for people who lost their homes or businesses at a meeting today.
Thousands of residents of the town slept for a second night on the streets, unable to return home after the earthquake destroyed masonry and building facades, crushed cars and littered streets with bricks. Many of Lorca's 90,000 residents are still waiting for housing inspectors to give them the green light to enter buildings.
Lorca’s mayor has said that of around 550 buildings inspected so far by engineers and architects, more than half are uninhabitable. Lorca is a town of some 90,000 that lives off agriculture.