Hope lingers in Italy hotel rescue
RACE AGAINST TIME: Rescuers search the ruins of the Hotel Rigopiano after the avalanche this week ITALIAN rescuers pulled four survivors from an avalanchehit hotel yesterday and said they hoped to find more people alive in ruins where up to 20 may still be trapped.
The rescue of two men and two women followed that on Friday of four children and the mother of two of them from the remains of the Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy.
But the rescue operation, which enters its fourth day today, is becoming a race against the clock amid fears that anyone still alive could succumb to the cold before they can be reached.
There were no reports of further signs of life but officials emphasised that was no reason to give up hope.
Enrica Centi, a spokeswoman for the mountain rescuers involved in the operation, said: “Although no more voices have been heard there may be people trapped behind or under a cement wall, which would make it impossible to hear them.” She said scores of rescuers were working 14-hour shifts.
The rescuers are having to comb a large area of snowcovered debris as a result of the devastating force of the avalanche, which dragged the base of the three-storey hotel some 10m off its foundations.
The latest rescue brings to 11 the total number of survivors of the disaster, including two hotel guests who were outside the building when the avalanche struck just before nightfall on Wednesday.
Five bodies have been recovered so far, leaving at least 11 people and possibly up to 20 unaccounted for.
There is uncertainty about how many people were staying at the hotel and whether any other visitors were in its bar or restaurant.
Rescuers have had to work agonisingly slowly because of the risk of triggering further movements in the snow piled on top of the masonry.
The avalanche on Wednesday followed four earthquakes of more than five magnitude in the space of four hours earlier in the day. — AFP