Survivors of a powerful quake that devastated many historic buildings in L'Aquila, Italy, almost a year ago were back behind their pushcarts yesterday to remove tonnes of rubble in a silent revolt against the slow pace of rebuilding.

"We need to get our city back because the government and the civil protection agency still have not cleared the centre," said a young man called Luigi.

Life in the old town of L'Aquila, with its rich Renaissance and Baroque buildings and churches, was practically wiped out on the night of April 6 last year when the quake killed 299 people. Shops have remained closed and business is scarce, with up to three million cubic metres of rubble still littering narrow streets. Authorities have set a goal of removing one million tonnes this year. Scaffolding and steel supports still shore up treasured architecture in the centre of the mediaeval walled city, which experts predict will remain a "red zone" for the next 10 years.

But yesterday morning some 100 people were back on the streets as every weekend for the past couple of months.

Equipped with pushcarts, buckets or spades the seven- to 77-year-old volunteers appeared unfazed by the dust that hangs over the historic centre.

"Even if we know that we cannot remove the rubble by ourselves, we want to show that people do not only expect others to do the job," said Luigi.

People's so-called pushcart revolt also opposes the government's bulldozing policy to remove the debris by separating neatly cleaned bricks that can be reused in the reconstruction from wooden boards, plastic tubes and twisted metal.

"The government is trying to use our movement for its own purposes," 26-year-old Mattia said bitterly. "It's no coincidence that they sent the army to remove the rubble 10 days before the (regional) election" of March 28-29."

Others sported signs around their necks that read, "We want L'Aquila back", "Reopen L'Aquila without conditions" or "L'Aquila belongs to us".

With yesterday's job done the group split up, each carrying his or her tools back to what has become home since the quake - a hotel, a temporary shelter or a room with friends.