Nine people including four children were pulled to safety over the weekend, almost 60 hours after an avalanche buried and swept away their Italian hotel.
The mass snow slide weighing around 60,000-tons plummeted on top of the luxury, mountainside Hotel Rigopiano, trapping terrified tourists inside for several days.
Over 30 people – at least 22 guests, eight hotel workers and four other visitors – were initially feared dead, however, so far six bodies have been removed from the wreckage and another 24 people are still missing.
Despite the search now extending beyond four days, rescue parties are still holding out hope of finding more tourists alive under the snow, especially after speaking to recently located survivors who said they drank dirty snow to stay hydrated.
The hunt continues for Italy avalanche survivors https://t.co/cqzogDlW7S pic.twitter.com/5IgxUr93HW
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 22, 2017
A 25-year-old survivor, Vincenzo Forti told The Telegraph he was sitting on the couch when the avalanche hit, leaving him and his 22-year-old girlfriend Giorgia Galassi, cuddling for 50 hours in a small, dark space.
Galassi said she couldn’t believe the pair had survived days in freezing temperatures and admitted they were “losing hope and strength”.
“We were trapped in a box, we heard no sounds from outside.”
Giorgia Galassi, survivor
“We were sucking on ice but we weren’t eating.”
Four more survivors extracted from Italian hotel hit by avalanche https://t.co/M58i6m3CfT pic.twitter.com/YXTm4m5BVU
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 21, 2017
She continued, explaining that the pair had initially banged on the ceiling but eventually gave up. It wasn’t until they heard voices that she said she started shouting “I am Giorgia and I am alive”.
“It was the most beautiful thing I have ever said,” she said.
Of the younger survivors, Edoardo di Carlo and Samuel Di Michelangelo had been in the games room when the avalanche struck. They were both pulled to safety after two days. Samuel’s parents are still missing in the wreckage.
More survivors in Italian avalanche hotel as death toll rises to five https://t.co/dB2bmo4EV3 pic.twitter.com/t8qgOwKRxx
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 21, 2017
A spokesperson for the firefighters involved in rescue operations said everyone is still holding out hope of finding more survivors “even if there are no sign of life”.
“You could drill through a wall and suddenly there’d be contact,” the spokesperson said. “That’s what happened with the other survivors.”