EPA
A six-year-old girl asked for a biscuits after being trapped in a hotel for two days
Ludovica Parete, six, had stashed a pack of chocolate biscuits in her bag to take back home but never got to eat them because an earthquake triggered a snow tsunami that engulfed the hotel in Italy’s Appenine mountains.
Her mother Adriana, a nurse, and brother Gianfilippo, eight, were rescued after being trapped for almost 48 hours.
Adriana and Gianfilippo barricaded themselves in a kitchen, made a fire and ate food from cupboards while Ludovica was in an adjoining room.
Seconds after being pulled free Adriana told rescuers: “Go in the room next door. My daughter is in there.”
Husband and father Giampiero Parete, 38, a cook and hotel guest, escaped the rush of snow because at the moment it struck he was fetching medicine from the family car.
NC
Giampiero and Adriana are reunited after their ordeal
Yesterday the family was reunited at a hospital while a huge rescue effort continued to try to save others. Adriana said: “Once I realised we were all alive I was sure the worst was over and we would be rescued. But the time passed so slowly and I began to fear the worst. I stopped believing we would be found.”
Once I realised we were all alive I was sure the worst was over
data-ad-format="auto">Mother Adriana Parete
Another child survivor, Edoardo Di Carlo, nine, said shortly after being pulled from the snow: “Wow, look at all the snow. Can we go skiing? What happened? How long has it been? I was playing billiards with some other kids.”
Hopes were still high last night that more survivors could be dug out after rescuers found pockets of air inside the wrecked Hotel Rigopiano in the mountainous Abruzzo region of central Italy.
Two women and two men were pulled out alive late on Friday. Last night all nine survivors, including four children, were recovering in hospital and only one required surgery.
Italy avalanche: Devastating pictures after deadly avalanche
Thu, January 19, 2017
A devastating avalanche has hit a hotel in Italy, leaving up to 30 missing.
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An avalanche buried the Hotel Rigopiano in Abruzzo.
EPA
Rescuers shovel snow vowing to work day and night to find survivors
However, the confirmed death toll rose to five when the body of a man was found yesterday morning after those of two women were found during the previous night.
Some 23 people are still unaccounted for, including several children. Rescuers have pledged to work day and night until everyone is accounted for.
The avalanche came hours after a series of tremors struck the area, which was devastated by deadly quakes last year and had been grappling with heavy snowfall.
The four-storey building was obliterated and debris spread for hundreds of metres down the valley in the Gran Sasso park. Police said they found one of the survivors and three of the victims in the dark by tracing mobile phone signals.
Fireman Alberto Maiolo said: “We can hear noises and we hope they are people trying to alert us.”
Snow kept falling in sub-zero temperatures yesterday and there were many small earth tremors.
Central Italy has trembled with more than 48,200 seismic events since a quake razed the town of Amatrice last August, killing 300 people.
A further five people have been found dead elsewhere in the Abruzzo. Alpine emergency service worker Walter Milan said: “The weather is really bad. It’s been snowing since about 4am.”
Two people who were outside the hotel when the wall of snow struck were rescued on Thursday.
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