Penne, Italy - Five people have been
confirmed dead at the hotel demolished by an avalanche in
central Italy this week, and nine survivors have been pulled
from the rubble, the national fire service said on Saturday.
There were around 30 people in the Hotel Rigopiano when a
tsunami of snow smashed into it on Wednesday, and around 15 are
still unaccounted for.
The body of one man was recovered from the shattered ruins
of the hotel on Saturday morning, after those of two women were
found overnight, raising the known death toll to five, fire
service spokesman Luca Cari told Reuters.
Four survivors - two men and two women - were recovered
overnight after hours of painstaking digging by firemen, who
moved cautiously for fear the buried air pockets might collapse.
Four children and a woman were saved on Friday, dug out from
under tonnes of snow and debris in a remote valley in the
Abruzzo region.
The avalanche came hours after a series of tremors struck
the area, which was devastated by deadly quakes last year, and
had been grappling with heavy snowfall.
The four-storey building was obliterated, and debris spread
for hundreds of metres (yards) down the valley in the Gran Sasso
park.
A further five people have now been found dead elsewhere in
the Abruzzo after the double blow of snow and quakes, the
national civil protection agency said on Saturday.
Italian media reported on Saturday that a number of other
voices had been heard under the rubble of the hotel, but that it
was proving hard to establish where exactly they were. There was
no immediate confirmation of this from the emergency services.
Rescue teams would continue to work night and day until
everyone was accounted for, Cari said.