Hopes fade for 23 missing in Italy avalanche disaster

Rescuers pulled four more survivors from the ruins of an avalanche-hit Italian hotel on Saturday as hopes faded of finding 23 people still missing three days after the disaster struck. Saturday's rescues lifted the total number of survivors to 11. But with no new signs of life detected, any trapped survivors were facing a fourth night under snow-covered rubble in the freezing mountains of central Italy.
Teams of mountain rescuers and fire-fighters had been boosted by Friday's dramatic rescue of all four children who were inside the Hotel Rigopiano, along with the mother of two of them. Two men and two women were then pulled out alive in the early hours of Saturday.
But optimism receded over the course of a day in which emergency personnel had to battle atrocious conditions at 1,200-metres (3,900 feet) above sea level. Enrica Centi, a spokeswoman for the mountain rescue teams involved in the operation, said heavy snow and poor visibility which grounded helicopters was hampering the effort. "Those on site say they have heard signs of possible life but it may just have been bits of rubble collapsing, it's impossible to tell," she said.
Among those missing was hotel kitchen staffer Luana Biferi, whose neighbour Antonio Lobolo went to the rescue co-ordination centre in Penne in search of news. "Our hope is that she may have been in the kitchen when the avalanche hit because it has a thick external wall which may have protected her," the 42-year-old told AFP. "She was supposed to have left the day before but stayed on for one more day. Our whole village is waiting anxiously for news."