PENNE: A group of African migrants on Saturday joined volunteers helping the relief effort where four people were pulled alive from the wreckage of a luxury hotel that was demolished on Wednesday by a deadly avalanche, bringing the number of survivors to nine, the national fire service said on Saturday.

The two men and two women were extracted from the shattered ruins of Hotel Rigopiano overnight after hours of painstaking digging by firemen, who were having to move cautiously for fear the buried air pockets might collapse.

Four children and a woman were saved on Friday, dug out from under tonnes of snow and debris in a remote valley in mountainous central Italy.The young migrants had previously done volunteer humanitarian work in Turin and offered to help after the region was hit by the double whammy of multiple earthquakes and the deadly avalanche which engulfed the Hotel Rigopiano on Wednesday.

“They asked if they could give a hand,” said Red Cross spokesman Ensa D’Alessandro.

“They’ve been volunteering with the Red Cross for the last two years and have specialized in logistics.

“We are setting up a tent for the rescue teams at the avalanche site, where rescuers can rest and recuperate.

“The boys will be working in the tent in shifts, giving a hand to the cook and helping out wherever needed. Two of the group are already up there.” Among the group being briefed Saturday was baby-faced Barry Misbaou, 20, from Guinea.

“The situation is difficult, it’s not easy for us because it’s the first time we’ll have done anything like this,” he said.

“We’re finding it difficult because we’re not used to the cold and we’re foreigners, but this is life and we have to do what we can because it’s good to help people, especially victims.

“We’re here now to go and work at the hotel but we don’t know what will happen.”

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2017