Europe

Avalanche rescue continues as crews mourn colleagues

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Rescuers work next to a helicopter that crashed in the Campo Felice ski area, central Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. A helicopter ferrying an injured skier off the slopes crashed Tuesday into a mountainside in central Italy, killing all six people aboard in the latest tragedy to hit a region slammed by recent earthquakes, heavy snowfall and an avalanche, officials said. (Claudio Lattanzio/ANSA via AP) (The Associated Press)

A Red Cross staffer wears a black ribbon during the funeral of Gabriele D'Angelo, one of the victims of the avalanche which buried the Hotel Rigopiano, in Penne, central Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. The death toll from an avalanche in central Italy climbed to 14 on Tuesday as hopes began to fade that any of the 15 people still missing might be found alive under a mountain resort buried by tons of snow and rubble. (Alessandro Di Meo/ANSA via AP) (The Associated Press)

Rescuers hug each other on the site where an helicopter crashed, in the Campo Felice ski area, central Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. A helicopter ferrying an injured skier off the slopes crashed Tuesday into a mountainside in central Italy, killing all six people aboard in the latest tragedy to hit a region slammed by recent earthquakes, heavy snowfall and an avalanche, officials said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (The Associated Press)

Rescue crews have located an 18th body in the rubble of a hotel crushed by an avalanche even as they mourn colleagues who were killed in a nearby helicopter crash.

The emergency helicopter slammed into a mountainside Tuesday as its crew was rescuing an injured skier. The two pilots, three crew and the skier were killed. Some of the crew had been working at the avalanche site some 100 kilometers (60 miles) away up until Monday.

Eleven people remain under the hotel rubble.

Premier Paolo Gentiloni is to brief parliament on Wednesday on the series of earthquakes, heavy snowfall and the avalanche that have pummeled central Italy in recent days and weeks, and the round-the-clock response by civil protection, firefighter and emergency crews.