News / EU

Death toll from avalanche burying Italian hotel rises to 17

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 7:28 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 25 January 2017 10:08 AM ]

The photo shows an excavator at the site of Hotel Rigopiano, which has been buried under an avalanche, near Farindola, Italy, January 24, 2017. (By AP)

The death toll from an avalanche burying a hotel in northern Italy has risen to 17 as two more bodies are retrieved from the site.

Rescuers on Tuesday pulled out the two bodies from Hotel Rigopiano, a three-story building that was buried in an avalanche in Abruzzo region, about 135 kilometers northeast of the capital, Rome, last Wednesday.

There are conflicting reports on the number of people who were inside the building when the avalanche hit. A total of eleven people were rescued on Friday, including two individuals who had been buried under the snow outside the hotel and nine others trapped inside. The survivors were immediately treated for hypothermia.

Reports say 12 people remain unaccounted for, and there is little hope — if any — to find more survivors. Even so, rescuers are working around the clock to get access to the entire wreckage.

“We won’t stop searching until we are certain there is no one left under the ruins,” said Luigi D’Angelo of Italy’s civil protection agency. “We are still digging into the heart of the building, the zone between the kitchens, the bar and the entrance hall. We’re going to keep going until we have found everyone.”

The deadly avalanche last Wednesday afternoon followed a series of quakes and heavy snowfall, which caused other emergencies in the area as well.

Also on Tuesday, a helicopter hit a mountainside as it was carrying an injured skier from another incident nearby in heavy fog. The accident claimed the lives of six people, including the skier.

While some 8,000 troops and emergency service personnel have been deployed to the affected region, the helicopter crash has further strained the rescue services.

Italian prosecutors have announced an investigation into the hotel’s structure and communications to see if the tragedy could have been avoided.

The residents of nearby areas had already been struggling with harsh conditions because of heavy snowfall, which had buried phone lines and took out power cables.

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