Madonna gives $500,000 to Italian quake victims

The mayor of Pacentro - where the singer's grandparents lived until 1919 - appealed for her help after at least 250 died in the devastating tremor in the central Abruzzo region.

Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said she "responded generously" to the request. Although no figure was given, reports in America suggested the donation was about $500,000.

"I am happy to lend a helping hand to the town that my ancestors are from," Madonna said in a statement. "My heart goes out to the families that have lost loved ones or their homes."

The death toll reached 250 as 15 bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight - but a woman was found alive in the wreckage of her home in L'Aquila, 42 hours after the quake struck. Rescuers with sniffer dogs and heat seeking equipment found Eleonora Calesini, 20, lying in her pyjamas in a "cocoon" created by falling concrete and masonry that protected her from aftershocks.

Firefighters drafted in from Venice found Miss Calesini at 9.30pm last night. As they pulled her from the rubble Miss Calesini, from Rimini, said: "Can I have some water - and tell my mother and father I am OK?"

One rescuer, called Bruno, said: "She had injuries to her arms and legs and it was about two hours before she was pulled free. She was conscious throughout the whole time and although she had been protected by the concrete it was still difficult to reach her."

Rescuers continued their search but hopes of finding anyone else alive are fading. Bodies of two women were recovered in L'Aquila this morning.

The city's mayor, Massimo Cialente, said there were 16 bodies in a makeshift mortuary that could not be identified and the Archbishop of L'Aquila, Giuseppe Molinari, announced that funerals would take place on Good Friday. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi visited the area today.

Survivors forced to move into villages of tents had to contend with aftershocks, temperatures plunging to 4˚C and rain. Many chose to sleep in cars.

A London woman was caught in the quake and climbed to safety as her village home collapsed.

Joanna Griffith-Jones, 46, was in bed with her husband, Francesco Negroni, when the tremor struck early on Monday. They put on their clothes in their third-floor bedroom, but the stairs collapsed and they had to escape from their window using sheets.

She said: "If we had been on the ground floor we would not have been here now. The whole thing was terrifying."

The couple live in Onna, a village razed by the 6.3 magnitude quake. Forty of its 350 inhabitants were killed.