Harrowing pictures show the avalanche-struck Hotel Rigopiano as workers rush to save up to 23 people still trapped inside
Rescuers working around the clock at 'Coffin hotel' where they believe several people could still be alive
THESE chilling pictures show the interior of the Italian hotel hit by a devastating avalanche - where rescuers have pulled another four people as the race continues to find up to 23 people who may still be trapped alive.
It takes the total number of survivors to 11 after two men and two women were hauled from the Hotel Rigopiano, in central Italy on Saturday morning.
The hotel in the town of Farindola is near a region hit by four earthquakes on January 18.
Experts now fear the tremors could have led to the deadly avalanche.
Emergency services have been spurred on to continue their search at pace after finding four children alive in the snow-struck building yesterday.
Video released on Friday showed the dramatic moment one of the boys was pulled from beneath the snow after more than 40 hours.
It is thought the children survived because they were in a games room that escaped being crushed in the devastating avalanche.
Workers on 14-hour shifts are now battling to find 23 unaccounted people from what the Italian media are calling the “coffin hotel”.
They say that there have been no signs of life since the latest rescue, but "there is still hope", spokesperson Enrica Centi told reporters.
The news comes after a rescue worker told of desperately digging for survivors with his hands.
More than 30 people were buried alive when the Hotel Rigopiano in the town of Farindola was engulfed by a wall of snow triggered by several earthquakes on Wednesday.
A young Ryanair pilot, 25, and his 24-year-old girlfriend are among those believed to have been buried by the avalanche, according to reports today.
Lorenzo Gagliardi was with the first group of rescuers to arrive at the “apocalyptic scene” at 4am.
The emergency workers walked all night on skis to get to the site of the disaster after heavy snowfall blocked the roads.
Braving blizzards, sub-zero temperatures and the constant threat of more avalanches, they pushed on, determined to reach those who might still be alive under the snow.
And Lorenzo has now described frantically digging to reach any survivors buried in the hotel.
He told : “I dug with a shovel, with my hands, with a branch ... I realised that there, under three metres of snow, there was someone there.
“And I was talking in my head with that person: ‘We’re coming, we’re coming, hold on ... I'll take you back home. You're too strong, you can’t die like this’.”
Lorenzo was fuelled on by a promise he had made to one of the first survivors to be found – that he would save his wife and children, who lie somewhere beneath the snow.
Upon arriving at the hotel, the group of 12 rescuers found Giampaolo Parete and Fabio Salzetta – who had not been inside the hotel when the disaster struck.
The pair were sitting in a car – the only one not to have been buried – with the engine running.
The heater had kept them alive through the freezing night.
Related stories
Parete told Lorenzo that his family were buried in the hotel and begged him to save them.
The rescue worker said: “I promised him that I would get them both back to him. I told him he could go to the hospital, because I was going to stay there.
“I am 48 years old and have two daughters – I know what it means. I made a promise, from a father to a father.”
Four bodies have so far been found in the hotel, but many people are still missing.
A friend of one of the survivors yesterday revealed the tourists had gathered in the lobby waiting for a snow plough to clear the roads so they could be evacuated when the disaster struck.
And hope is now fading fast, with any possible survivors having to battle the cold and likely to be running out of oxygen.
"We're holding on to hope that there are survivors inside," Deputy Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico told reporters today in the nearby town of Penne, where a camp for rescue workers has been set up.
"Firefighters and alpine rescuers are working tirelessly and now the army is doing everything to improve access to the route," he said.
Special army mountain rescue teams were seen riding in vehicles with caterpillar tracks.
"A small avalanche has created a wall of snow across the path to the hotel, we are heading up there now to knock it down," said army Major Nicola Cappozolo.
"As long as there is hope of finding survivors we'll be there."
Veteran rescue worker Lorenzo has been saving people in the region for some nine years – aiding in the hunt for survivors after the devastating earthquakes in L'Aquila, Norcia and Amatrice which killed hundreds.
But he said this search has shaken him in a way none of those did.
He said: “Here it's different, there were people who were safe in a hotel, there were children ... and I knew that desperate father.
“I owe him bring him his family.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368