FARINDOLA: The death toll from an avalanche that swamped an Italian mountain hotel rose to 15 on Tuesday, with 14 still missing, as a nearby helicopter crash dealt another blow to a region reeling from earthquakes and the heaviest snowfall in decades.
The emergency response helicopter, which had six people onboard, came down near Campo Felice, a popular ski resort 120 km east of Rome, during the evacuation of an injured skier.
There were reports of a loud explosion being heard. “The area where it came down is hard to access at the best of times, and thick fog is making it even more difficult,” a police spokesman said. “Several teams are trying to get there.”
Campo Felice, located at 710 metres altitude but with pistes up to just over 2,000 metres, is close to the epicentres of earthquakes that struck the region last Wednesday and were followed by the killer avalanche.
Police said there was no apparent link between the crash and the seismic activity or the avalanche.
But it came as firefighters and mountain police grappled with their aftermath. A team of first responders who had been helping the rescue effort at the Hotel Rigopiano was dispatched to the helicopter crash site. The tally of bodies found in the ruins of the Rigopiano rose to 15 on the sixth day of an increasingly forlorn search through the snow-covered wreckage.
Eleven staff and guests survived the disaster, two men who we outside when the avalanche struck and nine people, including four children, who were found on Friday. Rescuers have refused to give up hope of finding more people alive with morale amongst the exhausted rescuers having been boosted on Monday when three live puppies were retrieved from under the rubble. — AFP
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