Ten found alive in Rigopiano hotel following avalanche

Ten people, including four children, have been found alive under the avalanche that hit an Italian mountain hotel almost two days ago

Firefighters rescue an avalanche survivor from Hotel Rigopiano
Firefighters rescue an avalanche survivor from Hotel Rigopiano

Approximately 20 people are thought to still be buried beneath the rubble, after an avalanche hit the Hotel Rigapiano on Thursday while some 35 guests and staff are believed to have been inside.

A total of ten people have so far been been accounted for - a woman and four children have been pulled out of the rubble while another five persons are waiting to be extracted. Four individuals have also been verified dead.

Five of the survivors were to be flown by helicopter to a hospital in Pescara suffering from hypothermia, officials told reporters in the town of Penne, from where the rescue effort is being coordinated.

“Finding these people gives us further hope there are other survivors,” said Titti Postiglione, a civil protection agency official.
Italian media reported that the fire brigade requested rescue helicopters to help with the efforts. Workers cleared over 8km of road to bring in heavy equipment. 

The avalanche struck the hotel in central Italy late on Wednesday afternoon amid a driving snowstorm, after multiple earthquakes, four of which were stronger than magnitude 5, shook the area that straddles the regions of Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo. They were also centred near Amatrice, the town devastated in an August quake in which nearly 300 people died.

Quake experts said the tremors almost certainly triggered the snowslide, according to AFP news agency.

The hotel, a four-star establishment with its own spa and indoor pool, was located at an altitude of 1,200 metres, around 90 kilometres east of the epicentres of Wednesday's earthquakes. The barrage of snow tore the hotel from its foundations and moved it 10 metres.

The first rescue teams arrived on skis early on Thursday, at 4:00am, and fire fighters were dropped in by helicopter.

Firefighters work at Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, central Italy, after it was hit by an avalanche
Firefighters work at Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, central Italy, after it was hit by an avalanche

The hotel phones went down early on Wednesday due to the heavy snowfall, just as the first of four powerful earthquakes struck the region.
The hotel's guests had been assembled on the ground floor awaiting an evacuation following the quakes, but this was delayed by snow-blocked roads when the avalanche struck. The snow plough scheduled for mid-afternoon never arrived and the avalanche hit sometime around 5.30pm.

On Thursday, local officials confirmed two guests who were not inside when the avalanche hit had been rescued.

One of them, identified as Giampiero Parete, 38, was quoted by friends in Italian media as saying his wife and two children, a girl aged six and a boy aged eight, had been inside the hotel.

Officials said there had been between 20 and 22 guests staying and seven or eight staff on duty at the hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain. It was unclear if there were any additional people in the hotel.

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