Hopes faded Tuesday that any more survivors of the devastating avalanche that buried an Italian resort hotel would be found after the death toll more than doubled to 17, with 12 people still unaccounted for.

As Italy's central Abruzzo region and its rescue crews coped with the ongoing emergency, a second tragedy unfolded nearby when an emergency helicopter crashed at an Apennine ski resort, killing six people.

The twin disasters, which followed a series of earthquakes and weeks of heavy snow, have brought the region to its knees. Thousands of people have been without electricity for over a week and emergency crews have been working around the clock.

The helicopter was ferrying an injured skier off the slopes of the Campo Felice ski area when it slammed into a mountainside buried in thick fog. Five crew members and the skier were killed.

Emergency workers at the center where rescue efforts at the avalanche-entombed Hotel Rigopiano are being coordinated rushed to the chopper crash site about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. Crews on the ground at the scene hugged one another in solidarity.

The death toll from the Jan. 18 avalanche, meanwhile, climbed to 17 on Tuesday with the discovery of 10 more bodies. Twelve people remained missing. Nine people previously had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early Saturday.

Firefighters' spokesman Alberto Maiolo said search crews aided by excavators finally were able to penetrate the central part of the hotel for the first time and found bodies in the bar and kitchen area.

He said there were no signs of life.

"Logically, hopes fade as time passes, but we are continuing to search and trying to do it as quickly as possible," he said.

The first funerals were held Tuesday, with crowds gathering under a steady rain outside the hilltop church in Farindola to pay their respects to Alessandro Giancaterino, the hotel's chief waiter.

Giancaterino, one of the first victims pulled from the wreckage, had offered to stay for a double shift on Jan. 18 to spare a colleague from having to make his way to the hotel through the snow, which was two to three meters (six to 10 feet) high in some places.

"He was a great, hard worker. He was very professional," said his brother, Massimiliano Giancaterino. "This is the memory that I want to keep of my brother, beyond obviously the private ones that I keep in my heart."

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche. In addition, they are looking into the original construction of the isolated resort and whether it should have been open for business at all in such conditions.

Giancaterino, who is also a former mayor of Farindola, said it was useless to speculate now, while an investigation was just beginning, about whether the tragedy could have been avoided.

"Now it is not the time for hypothesis," he said. "It is the time of pain and above all my thoughts go to the friends and relatives of those who are still missing," he said.

Two of the avalanche's youngest survivors, Samuel Di Michelangelo and Edoardo Di Carlo, were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. Officials have confirmed that Edoardo's parents were killed in the avalanche, while Samuel's are still unaccounted for.

Before their release, the boys had a video conference call with one of their heroes: Argentine forward Paulo Dybala, one of Italian team Juventus' standout soccer players.

"He's very sensitive about these types of things and was happy to participate," a Juventus spokeswoman said, on customary condition of anonymity.

Two other survivors, Vincenzo Forti and Giorgia Galassi, briefed police for several hours Tuesday and returned to their home on the Adriatic coast in Giulianova.

Galassi told reporters outside her parents' home that she was reticent to speak publicly about the couple's ordeal, saying she wanted to respect the people who died and those still waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.

"I respect them. I have lived the same experience. I knew everyone," she said, Forti by her side.

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DeCristofaro reported from Penne. AP Writer Colleen Barry contributed from Giulianova, Italy. AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed from Rome.</s>Prime Minister: Italy hotel death toll rises to 24; 5 still missing after avalanche

The death toll from an avalanche in central Italy has climbed to 24, with 5 people still missing under a mountain resort buried by tons of snow and rubble</s>Search crews in Italy found five more bodies overnight at the sight of an avalanche that buried a luxury mountain hotel six days ago.

The death toll now stands at 12, with 17 people still missing.

Several people have been pulled alive from the four-star Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy where about 30 people were at the time the avalanche hit January 18.The avalanche was triggered by a series of strong earthquakes.

A fire service spokesman has pledged rescue teams will continue to work night and day until everyone is accounted for.Hopes for additional survivors were raised Monday when three of the hotel's sheepdog puppies were found alive.

An investigation into the tragedy has been opened by a court in Pescara, with some saying the emergency response was slow. The first rescuers arrived amid a snow storm on skis 11 hours after the avalanche hit.</s>ROME (Sputnik) – One male and one female body were recovered late on Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the disaster up to 27, Il Pescara said adding that two people are still missing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Italian media put the death toll at 25.

The Rigopiano hotel, located at the foot of the Gran Sasso mountain and built into the hillside, was buried by a major avalanche on January 18, when a series of earthquakes struck the region.

There were dozens of people in the hotel at the time of the accident. Over 10 have been rescued.</s>On January 18, central Italy was shaken by a series of earthquakes, with the biggest jolts ranging from 5.1 to 5.7 in magnitude and felt in Rome. On the same day, the avalanche in the region of Abruzzo buried the Rigopiano di Farindola hotel with dozens of guests and staff inside.</s>The death toll from an avalanche in central Italy has climbed to 12, with 17 people still missing at a mountain resort buried by tons of snow and rubble.

Firefighters located five more bodies overnight and the search was continuing on Tuesday in the hope someone might still be alive six days after the disaster.

Rescue crews were buoyed by the discovery on Monday of three of the Hotel Rigopiano's resident puppies, though they stressed the white sheepdogs were found in a boiler room far from where the missing are thought to be.

The first funerals will be held on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the January 18 avalanche.</s>FARINDOLA, Italy — Hopes faded Tuesday that any more survivors of the devastating avalanche that buried an Italian resort hotel would be found after the death toll more than doubled to 17, with 12 people still unaccounted for.

As Italy’s central Abruzzo region and its rescue crews coped with the ongoing emergency, a second tragedy unfolded nearby when an emergency helicopter crashed at an Apennine ski resort, killing six people.

The twin disasters, which followed a series of earthquakes and weeks of heavy snow, have brought the region to its knees. Thousands of people have been without electricity for over a week, and emergency crews have been working around the clock.

The helicopter was ferrying an injured skier off the slopes of the Campo Felice ski area when it slammed into a mountainside buried in thick fog. Five crew members and the skier were killed.

Emergency workers at the center where rescue efforts at the avalanche-entombed Hotel Rigopiano are being coordinated rushed to the chopper crash site about 60 miles away. Crews on the ground at the scene hugged one another in solidarity.

The death toll from the Jan. 18 avalanche, meanwhile, climbed to 17 on Tuesday with the discovery of 10 more bodies. Twelve people remained missing. Nine people previously had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early Saturday.

Firefighters’ spokesman Alberto Maiolo said search crews aided by excavators finally were able to penetrate the central part of the hotel for the first time and found bodies in the bar and kitchen area.

He said there were no signs of life.

“Logically, hopes fade as time passes, but we are continuing to search and trying to do it as quickly as possible,” he said.

The first funerals were held Tuesday, with crowds gathering under a steady rain outside the hilltop church in Farindola to pay their respects to Alessandro Giancaterino, the hotel’s chief waiter.

Giancaterino, one of the first victims pulled from the wreckage, had offered to stay for a double shift on Jan. 18 to spare a colleague from having to make his way to the hotel through the snow, which was 6 to 10 feet high in some places.

“He was a great, hard worker. He was very professional,” said his brother, Massimiliano Giancaterino. “This is the memory that I want to keep of my brother, beyond obviously the private ones that I keep in my heart.”

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche. In addition, they are looking into the original construction of the isolated resort and whether it should have been open for business at all in such conditions.

Giancaterino, who is also a former mayor of Farindola, said it was useless to speculate now, while an investigation was just beginning, about whether the tragedy could have been avoided.

“Now it is not the time for hypothesis,” he said. “It is the time of pain and above all my thoughts go to the friends and relatives of those who are still missing,” he said.

Two of the avalanche’s youngest survivors, Samuel Di Michelangelo and Edoardo Di Carlo, were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. Officials have confirmed that Edoardo’s parents were killed in the avalanche, while Samuel’s are still unaccounted for.</s>The death toll from last week's devastating avalanche that buried a hotel in Italy has increased to 16 after the discovery of six more bodies.

Thirteen people remained unaccounted for almost a week on from last Wednesday's disaster, which devastated Hotel Rigopiano in the eastern Abruzzo region.

Nine people had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early on Saturday.

All four children who were in the hotel at the time survived and pictures have emerged of their dramatic rescue.

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche.</s>Italian rescue workers have found the dead body of a man in the wreckage of the hotel in central Italy that was buried in an avalanche last week, the Italian fire service said on Sunday, with 23 people were still missing as the search operation continues.

"At Hotel Rigopiano, at 1645 CET, the fire brigade located the dead body of one of the missing people," the fire service said in a Tweet.

The death toll stands at six, with 23 people still missing, Paolo Molinari from the Civil Protection agency said.

Nine people, including four children, were pulled alive from the piles of rubble and snow on Saturday.

The luxury Hotel Rigopiano, located at the foot of a mountain chain in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, was hit on Wednesday by an avalanche caused by an earthquake.

An earlier statement from the national fire service said the number of people missing had risen to 24 after a rescued person said that a hotel employee, of Senegalese origin, was inside the building at the moment of the avalanche.

"Operations continue, both inside and outside the hotel, there is no change in the numbers (of saved and dead people)," fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari said later.

An official from the national protection agency told reporters that efforts were being made to find alternative routes into the hotel.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday his government would work to find ways to give the national bodies involved in emergency and reconstruction operations more power.

"We must be faster, and to do so we have to give more effective powers," he said in an interview on state television RAI, adding that these operations could not be dragged down by bureaucracy. He said the government had to find a way to fight against delays and corruption.

Survivors said they ate snow, some dirty, to quench their thirst as they spent days in the dark, trapped in narrow corners of the hotel's rooms after walls and ceilings had collapsed.

Nine of the 11 survivors are still hospitalized in the nearby city of Pescara, with some of them expected to leave hospital as soon as Monday.

Some rescue workers said they did not rule out finding more survivors, almost four days after the disaster.

Emanuele Cherubini, a helicopter paramedic, told Reuters that the hotel "is full of places to shelter in ... so if someone had the good fortune to find one of those places with an air pocket..."

He said saving three children was a very moving experience.

Major Marco Amoriello said rescue efforts were continuing, despite the difficult weather conditions and forecasts which were "not looking good".

"We certainly won't be stopping because of that," Amoriello said.

Around 120,000 tonnes of snow, the equivalent of about 4,000 lorries, covered much of what was left of the hotel, a rescue official told Sky TG24 TV.

"Thank you for being close, and for the real help you are bringing," said Pope Francis on Sunday at his weekly Angelus audience, referring to those involved in the rescue and relief operations and asking people to pray for them and the families of the victims.

Towns in the snowbound region of Abruzzo, one of the areas devastated by the deadly earth tremors of recent months, are now suffering from the poor weather, with thousands of people still without electricity and phone connections.</s>ROME (Sputnik) — The death toll in central Italy avalanche rises to 17 after discovery of one more body, local media reported Tuesday, citing a source in the rescue team.

Earlier in the day, the rescue team found the bodies of two people.

A total of 12 people remain unaccounted for, while 11 people were found alive.

On January 18, central Italy was shaken by a series of earthquakes, with the biggest jolts ranging from 5.1 to 5.7 in magnitude and felt in Rome. On the same day, the avalanche in the region of Abruzzo buried the Rigopiano di Farindola hotel with dozens of guests and staff inside.
The death toll from the avalanche which buried the four-star luxury resort Hotel Rigopiano on 18 January rises to seventeen, with twelve others still missing.