Four people were pulled alive from the wreckage of a luxury hotel that on Wednesday was struck by a deadly avalanche triggered by a series of earthquakes, bringing the number of survivors to nine, the Italian fire service said yesterday.
The two men and two women were extracted from the shattered ruins of Hotel Rigopiano overnight after hours of painstaking digging by firefighters, who were having to move cautiously for fear that buried air pockets might collapse.
Four children and a woman were rescued on Friday, dug out from under tonnes of snow and debris in a remote valley in mountainous central Italy.
Photo: AP
Reports said that the four children had survived because they were in a games room at the time of the avalanche, while an entire family of four was among the survivors.
Fire service spokesman Luca Cari told reporters that the bodies of two women and a man were also recovered during the night, bringing the known death toll to four.
About 16 people were still unaccounted for, while nine had been rescued.
A wall of snow smashed into the spa hotel on Wednesday afternoon, obliterating the four-story building and spreading debris for hundreds of meters down the valley in the Gran Sasso park in the heart of Italy.
About 30 people were in the hotel at the time.
Italian media reported early yesterday that a number of other voices had been heard under the rubble, but that it was proving hard to establish exactly where 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.
Additional reporting by AFP
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