Children saved in Italy avalanche hotel miracle

A woman and four children were pulled today from the ruins of an Italian hotel and five other survivors were found, two days after the building was buried under an avalanche.
The rescues mean all four children known to have been in the Rigopiano hotel when it was hit by a wall of snow on Wednesday have been saved.
It also means that an entire family of four survived the disaster in extraordinary circumstances.
Giampiero Parete had feared the worse after he avoided being swamped by the avalanche because he had gone to the family car to get his wife's headache tablets.

His wife Adriana and their son Gianfilipo, 7, were found today morning and guided to safety.
As she was lifted out of a tunnel in the snow, the mother could be heard mouthing "my daughter, my daughter". But her despair was short-lived. Just after nightfall it was announced six-year-old Ludovica had also been rescued.

The news was widely hailed as little short of miraculous.
It came at the end of a day of painstaking efforts to find signs of life amid the snow-covered remains of the three-storey spa hotel located on the eastern lower slopes of Monte Gran Sasso, the highest peak in central Italy.

Another five survivors were still under the rubble with at least one of them injured.
With Parete and one other survivor having been found yesterday and two bodies recovered so far, there were at least 13 people unaccounted for.
Adriana and Gianfilipo were among a group of six people found in an air pocket today morning.