FARINDOLA, ITALY — A victim of the avalanche that struck central Italy last week said she ate only snow and ice to survive for more than two days trapped inside a hotel.
Giorgia Galassi, 22, and her boyfriend Vincenzo Forti, 25, are among nine survivors, including four children, who have been rescued so far, BBC News reported.
Galassi was sitting on a sofa with her boyfriend in the lobby of the Rigopiano Hotel when the avalanche hit last Wednesday.
The avalanche weighed 120,000 tons and hit the hotel at 60 miles per hour, according to officials.
With the hotel completely buried under snow, Galassi said it was pitch dark in the lobby and no sound could be heard from outside.
Shocked and confused, Galassi thought the hotel had been uprooted and pushed further down into the earth. However, she came to realize that the snow-damaged lobby had become a dome with four caverns.
Galassi said she heard an injured man who was in pain, and a woman call out to her daughter. In the lobby, voices echoed.
There was nothing to eat inside the hotel, so Galassi and Forti survived by eating ice and snow. They were rescued on Saturday, 58 hours after the avalanche hit.
Four magnitude 5.2 and stronger earthquakes struck near the town of Amatrice on Wednesday, triggering the avalanche that buried the hotel.
On Monday, the death toll from the disaster stood at six, with 23 people still missing, Reuters reported.
