Missing, victims, stranded people. The combined effect of the earthquake and snow aggravates the emergency in central Italy. After three hours of walking in the snow, the rescuers reached the Rigopiano hotel in the province of Pescara, overwhelmed yesterday by an avalanche while hosting about 20 tourists.
At the moment there are two people rescued: Giampiero Parete and Fabio Salzetta were outside the structure at the time of the accident and saw the avalanche coming. They are in good physical condition; they had taken cover inside a car. "There are many dead" is the latest communication from the rescuers who have meanwhile extracted the first victim. On Wednesday, when the avalanche violently hit the building, the hotel was hosting 20 tourists and 7 employees. These are the most recent images documenting the collapse inside the structure:
Below are the images shot during the night that document the prohibitive conditions in which the rescuers had to move on skis and managed to reach the hotel after a walk of almost 5 hours:
The avalanche of important dimensions would have come down in a wooded area and for this reason was particularly violent and would have invested cars, livestock and part of the hotel.
Meanwhile, a lifeless man is recovered from the rubble in Castel Castagna (Teramo). He is 83 years old and was buried in the collapse of his stable in a fraction of the town.
In Castiglione Messer Raimondo, in the province of Teramo from under the rubble of a farmhouse, the police extract two cousins, a thirty-year-old and a 17-year-old boy (not a mother with her son as initially thought). I'm in hypothermia. Loaded onto the Drago 54 helicopter, they arrive at the hospital, she is the most seriously ill.
A 60 year old man is under the avalanche that broke off hitting the houses of Ortolano, part of the municipality of Campotosto (L'Aquila). Operations were halted with the arrival of darkness and will continue tomorrow.
The Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, in continuous contact with the Civil Protection and Commissioner Errani, asked Minister Pinotti for a further, strengthened army commitment - together with the operational structures already present - to guarantee the maximum presence and proximity of the State in the places already affected by the earthquake and now affected by the new shocks.
