The death toll from last week's devastating avalanche that buried a hotel in Italy has increased to 16 after the discovery of six more bodies.

Thirteen people remained unaccounted for almost a week on from last Wednesday's disaster, which devastated Hotel Rigopiano in the eastern Abruzzo region.

Nine people had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early on Saturday.

All four children who were in the hotel at the time survived and pictures have emerged of their dramatic rescue.

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche. </s> ROME (Sputnik) – One male and one female body were recovered late on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the disaster up to 27, Il Pescara said adding that two people are still missing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Italian media put the death toll at 25.

The Rigopiano hotel, located at the foot of the Gran Sasso mountain and built into the hillside, was buried by a major avalanche on January 18, when a series of earthquakes struck the region.

There were dozens of people in the hotel at the time of the accident. Over 10 have been rescued. </s> The death toll from an avalanche in central Italy has climbed to 12, with 17 people still missing at a mountain resort buried by tons of snow and rubble.

Firefighters located five more bodies overnight and the search was continuing on Tuesday in the hope someone might still be alive six days after the disaster.

Rescue crews were buoyed by the discovery on Monday of three of the Hotel Rigopiano's resident puppies, though they stressed the white sheepdogs were found in a boiler room far from where the missing are thought to be.

The first funerals will be held on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the January 18 avalanche. </s> Search crews in Italy found five more bodies overnight at the sight of an avalanche that buried a luxury mountain hotel six days ago.

The death toll now stands at 12, with 17 people still missing.

Several people have been pulled alive from the four-star Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy where about 30 people were at the time the avalanche hit January 18.The avalanche was triggered by a series of strong earthquakes.

A fire service spokesman has pledged rescue teams will continue to work night and day until everyone is accounted for.Hopes for additional survivors were raised Monday when three of the hotel's sheepdog puppies were found alive.

An investigation into the tragedy has been opened by a court in Pescara, with some saying the emergency response was slow. The first rescuers arrived amid a snow storm on skis 11 hours after the avalanche hit. </s> Earthquake Triggers Avalanche at Spa in Italian Mountains An avalanche buried a four-star spa hotel in a mountainous earthquake-hit region of central Italy, leaving at least 30 people missing, authorities said on Thursday. Footage from rescuers showed the destruction inside the Hotel Rigopiano. (Published Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017)

Rescuers found eight people alive inside a Italian hotel that was buried under an avalanche, Italy's Civil Protection Agency confirmed to NBC News Friday.

It was wasn't immediately clear whether the survivors had been removed from the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola. They had been trapped for more than 40 hours.

“We always hoped to find someone alive. The fact we found people alive after so many hours give us even more hope," said Titti Postiglione of the Civil Protection Agency.

Up to 30 people, including an unspecified number of children, were reported missing after an avalanche buried the four-star hotel on Wednesday. </s> An avalanche hit a popular mountain hotel in central Italy after a series of strong earthquakes had rattled the area, and up to 30 people might be buried under the snow, officials said on Wednesday.

“Around 30 people are unaccounted for, between guests and workers at the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola,” Fabrizio Curcio, head of Italy‘s civil protection department, told reporters.

Other officials said it was too early to say if anyone might have died, with the rescue operation hampered by up to 5 metres (16.4 ft) of snow which has fallen on the Gran Sasso mountain range in the central Abruzzo region in recent days.

The avalanche collapsed part of the four-storey hotel, which is some 1,200 metres (4,000 ft) above sea level, and moved it some 10 metres (30 ft) according to media reports.

A wall of snow and debris hit the hotel on Wednesday evening, just hours after four strong earthquakes had shaken central Italy, sparking fears about possible avalanches.

Two men who were outside the building at the time of the disaster and raised the alarm.

“I am alive because I went to get something from my car,” one of the two, Giampiero Parete, told medical staff, according to la Repubblica website.

Blocked roads in the area meant the first rescuers only arrived at 4.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) after they had skied through a heavy snow storm to reach the site. After dawn broke, emergency services sent in helicopters.

“We’re dropping our rescue units down by helicopter and they are starting to dig,” said Luca Cari, spokesman for the national fire brigades.

A base camp for rescue workers was set up in the town of Penne, some 10 km (6 miles) away from the Rigopiano hotel, which was a popular 4-star spa resort with 43 rooms.

An aerial shot of the hotel released by the fire brigade showed just the last floor and the roof visible above a thick blanket of snow.

Initial television pictures showed that mounds of snow and debris had smashed through a hotel wall into the lobby.

Italian media had earlier reported that “many dead” had been found inside the hotel. However officials in the area denied the report. </s> An avalanche in central Italy has buried a ski resort, leaving 30 people missing and prompting a frantic rescue effort.

The avalanche appeared to be triggered by four earthquakes that shook the Abruzzo region on Wednesday, says Christopher Livesay, reporting for NPR from Rome. The disaster struck in the same mountainous region where a powerful earthquake last summer killed nearly 300 people.

"The wall of snow blasted the Hotel Rigopiano ski resort as roughly 30 guests and employees slept," Livesay reports. "The civil protection agency told Italian news agency ANSA that there were 'many dead' beneath the snow and rubble, in the central Italian town of Farindola.

"Narrow mountain roads and icy weather are hampering rescue efforts," he says.

The first rescuers to reach the hotel traveled on skis, ANSA reports, while more teams followed by helicopter.

Footage of the hotel's interior showed hallways filled with snow, skylights cracking beneath the weight of the snow above and walls that had been smashed through by the force of the avalanche.

Italian media are reporting that some guests at the Hotel Rigopiano managed to send text messages after the avalanche trapped them inside the hotel.

One message, according to local media reports, came from a couple who said, "Help, we're dying of cold."

One survivor, according to ANSA, told rescuers he was spared by the avalanche because he stepped outside to get something from his car, but that his wife and children were trapped inside.

The AP notes that there are other rescue efforts active in the region, which "has been pummeled by more than a meter (three feet) of snow in recent days":



"[Storms] have knocked out power and phone lines and blocked roads, isolating towns and hamlets. " 'We have been abandoned by everyone!' marveled one resident from the province of Teramo, Daiana Nguyen, on Sky TG24. 'They talk about sending in the army: Thirty to 40 men came with shovels. We need heavy machinery.' "Nguyen said people have been stuck in their homes for days."



Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has urged the authorities to "multiply their efforts" and work to reach trapped people — both in the hotel and in the neighboring hamlets — as quickly as possible. </s> Hopes faded Tuesday that any more survivors of the devastating avalanche that buried an Italian resort hotel would be found after the death toll more than doubled to 17, with 12 people still unaccounted for.

As Italy's central Abruzzo region and its rescue crews coped with the ongoing emergency, a second tragedy unfolded nearby when an emergency helicopter crashed at an Apennine ski resort, killing six people.

The twin disasters, which followed a series of earthquakes and weeks of heavy snow, have brought the region to its knees. Thousands of people have been without electricity for over a week and emergency crews have been working around the clock.

The helicopter was ferrying an injured skier off the slopes of the Campo Felice ski area when it slammed into a mountainside buried in thick fog. Five crew members and the skier were killed.

Emergency workers at the center where rescue efforts at the avalanche-entombed Hotel Rigopiano are being coordinated rushed to the chopper crash site about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. Crews on the ground at the scene hugged one another in solidarity.

The death toll from the Jan. 18 avalanche, meanwhile, climbed to 17 on Tuesday with the discovery of 10 more bodies. Twelve people remained missing. Nine people previously had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early Saturday.

Firefighters' spokesman Alberto Maiolo said search crews aided by excavators finally were able to penetrate the central part of the hotel for the first time and found bodies in the bar and kitchen area.

He said there were no signs of life.

"Logically, hopes fade as time passes, but we are continuing to search and trying to do it as quickly as possible," he said.

The first funerals were held Tuesday, with crowds gathering under a steady rain outside the hilltop church in Farindola to pay their respects to Alessandro Giancaterino, the hotel's chief waiter.

Giancaterino, one of the first victims pulled from the wreckage, had offered to stay for a double shift on Jan. 18 to spare a colleague from having to make his way to the hotel through the snow, which was two to three meters (six to 10 feet) high in some places.

"He was a great, hard worker. He was very professional," said his brother, Massimiliano Giancaterino. "This is the memory that I want to keep of my brother, beyond obviously the private ones that I keep in my heart."

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche. In addition, they are looking into the original construction of the isolated resort and whether it should have been open for business at all in such conditions.

Giancaterino, who is also a former mayor of Farindola, said it was useless to speculate now, while an investigation was just beginning, about whether the tragedy could have been avoided.

"Now it is not the time for hypothesis," he said. "It is the time of pain and above all my thoughts go to the friends and relatives of those who are still missing," he said.

Two of the avalanche's youngest survivors, Samuel Di Michelangelo and Edoardo Di Carlo, were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. Officials have confirmed that Edoardo's parents were killed in the avalanche, while Samuel's are still unaccounted for.

Before their release, the boys had a video conference call with one of their heroes: Argentine forward Paulo Dybala, one of Italian team Juventus' standout soccer players.

"He's very sensitive about these types of things and was happy to participate," a Juventus spokeswoman said, on customary condition of anonymity.

Two other survivors, Vincenzo Forti and Giorgia Galassi, briefed police for several hours Tuesday and returned to their home on the Adriatic coast in Giulianova.

Galassi told reporters outside her parents' home that she was reticent to speak publicly about the couple's ordeal, saying she wanted to respect the people who died and those still waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.

"I respect them. I have lived the same experience. I knew everyone," she said, Forti by her side.

———

DeCristofaro reported from Penne. AP Writer Colleen Barry contributed from Giulianova, Italy. AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed from Rome. </s> FARINDOLA, Italy — Five people were found alive in the rubble of an Italian hotel Friday, two days after an avalanche tore through the mountain resort and trapped an estimated 30 people inside, rescue crews reported.

“We found five people alive. We’re pulling them out. Send us a helicopter,” a rescuer said over firefighters’ radio, overheard by AP photographer Gregorio Borgia who was making his way on foot toward the disaster site.

The radio report, which first came in at around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT), was repeated three more times, with firefighters saying the survivors were still under the rubble and warning the helicopter might have to wait until they were extracted.

Three helicopters landed at the scene, including an air ambulance, said Borgia and AP Producer Paolo Santalucia, who were turned away by the rescue crews about a kilometre (half a mile) from the remains of the Hotel Rigopiano, located about 30 miles (45 kilometres) from the coastal city of Pescara, at an altitude of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres).

The ANSA news agency said the number of possible new survivors was six.

About 30 people were trapped inside the luxury Hotel Rigopiano when the avalanche hit on Wednesday afternoon, with two people initially surviving the devastation and reporting the emergency.

Search and rescue teams had maintained the hope of finding survivors even though the avalanche dumped up to five metres (17 feet) of snow on the hotel.

“We are hoping that the ceiling collapsed partially in some places and that someone remained underneath,” rescuer Lorenzo Gagliardi told SKY Tg24.

Two bodies were recovered on the first day of searching and RAI state TV reported two more had been located but not yet removed.

The operations have been hampered by difficulty in accessing the remote hotel. Workers have been clearing a seven-kilometre (5.5-mile) road to bring in heavier equipment but it can handle only one-way traffic.

Alpine corps rescuer Milan Walter told SKY that they were considering whether to ferry more personnel in by helicopter as was done Thursday.

A convoy of rescue vehicles made slow progress to the hotel, blocked by snow piled three metres (10 feet) high in some places, fallen trees and rocks. By late Thursday, only 25 vehicles had arrived, along with 135 rescue workers, and civil protection authorities said part of the night was spent trying to widen the road.

The first rescue teams had arrived on skis early Thursday, and firefighters were dropped in by helicopter. Snowmobiles were also being mobilized.

Days of heavy snowfall had knocked out electricity and phone lines in many central Italian towns and hamlets, and the hotel phones went down early Wednesday, just as the first of four powerful earthquakes struck the region.

It wasn’t clear if the quakes triggered the avalanche. But emergency responders said the force of the massive snow slide collapsed a wing of the hotel that faced the mountain and rotated another off its foundation, pushing it downhill.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Gagliardi of the Alpine rescue service, who was among the first at the scene. “The mountain-facing side is completely destroyed and buried by snow: the kitchen, hotel rooms, hall.”

One of the survivors reported that the guests had all checked out and were waiting for the road to be cleared to be able to leave. The snow plow scheduled for midafternoon never arrived, and the avalanche hit sometime around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation in the tragedy, and among the hypotheses being pursued is whether the avalanche threat wasn’t taken seriously enough, according to Italian media.

Farindola Mayor Ilario Lacchetta said the hotel had 24 guests, four of them children, and 12 employees were onsite at the time of the avalanche.

An Alpine rescue team was the first to arrive on cross-country skis after a seven-kilometre, two-hour journey, finding Giampaolo Parete, a guest who escaped the avalanche when he went to his car to get something, and Fabio Salzetta, a hotel maintenance worker, in a car in the resort’s parking lot.

Parete, whose wife and two children remain among the missing, was taken to a hospital while Salzetta stayed behind with rescuers to help identify where guests might be buried and how crews could enter the buildings, rescuers said.

The mountainous region of central Italy has been struck by a series of quakes since August that destroyed homes and historic centres in dozens of towns and hamlets. A deadly quake in August killed nearly 300. No one died in strong aftershocks in October, largely because population centres had already been evacuated.
The death toll from the avalanche which buried the four-star luxury resort Hotel Rigopiano on 18 January rises to seventeen, with twelve others still missing.