Eight found alive in avalanche-hit hotel

Eight people have been found alive under the avalanche that hit an Italian mountain hotel almost two days ago and rescuers are working to free them from the snow on Friday.

"Finding these people gives us further hope there are other survivors," said Titti Postiglione, a Civil Protection official.

Up to 30 people were reported missing after the avalanche destroyed the Hotel Rigopiano on Wednesday afternoon. So far two bodies have been found and Italian media said two other bodies had been located.

Rescue crews continued to dig by hand on Friday through meters of snow and debris in the search for people trapped inside the resort flattened by a huge avalanche following a series of strong earthquakes. The search and rescue operation after the avalanche has been hampered by snow blocking the only road to the hotel and fears of triggering a fresh avalanche.

A convoy of rescue vehicles made slow progress to the hotel, blocked by snow piled three meters high in some places, fallen trees and rocks.

By late on Thursday, only 25 vehicles had arrived, along with 135 rescue workers, and civil protection authorities said part of the night was spent trying to widen the road.

The first rescue teams had arrived on skis early on Thursday, and rescuers were dropped in by helicopter. Snowmobiles were also being mobilized.

Two people escaped the devastation at the hotel in the quake-stricken mountains of central Italy and called for help. But it took hours for responders to arrive at the remote hotel, located about 50 kilometers from the coastal city of Pescara, at an altitude of about 1,200 meters.

Days of heavy snowfall had knocked out electricity and phone lines in many central Italian towns and hamlets, and the hotel phones went down early on Wednesday, just as the first of four powerful earthquakes struck the region.

It wasn't clear if the quakes triggered the avalanche. But emergency responders said the force of the massive snow slide collapsed a wing of the hotel that faced the mountain and rotated another off its foundation, pushing it downhill.

"The situation is catastrophic," said Marshall Lorenzo Gagliardi of the Alpine rescue service, who was among the first at the scene. "The mountain-facing side is completely destroyed and buried by snow: the kitchen, hotel rooms, hall."

Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation in the tragedy, and among the hypotheses being pursued is whether the avalanche threat wasn't taken seriously enough, according to Italian media.