Joy as crews save avalanche survivors in Italy

FARINDOLA, Italy — After two days huddled in freezing cold, tons of snow surrounding them in the wreckage of the avalanche-demolished hotel, survivors greeted their rescuers Friday as “angels.”

Bravo! rang out early Friday as the first survivors were pulled from the debris, boosting spirits two days after the massive snow slide buried some 30 people.

Four children were among those found alive, though the fate of the parents of one of them remained unknown as rescuers dug on.

Before the rescues, four bodies had been discovered earlier in the rubble of the luxury Hotel Rigopiano, in the Gran Sasso mountains 115 miles northeast of Rome, where the avalanche dumped 16½ feet of snow on top of the resort Wednesday.

First word of the survivors came around 11 a.m. when a boy wearing blue snow pants and a matching ski jacket emerged through a tunnel dug in the snow more than 42 hours after the avalanche struck.