Three puppies found after surviving FIVE DAYS trapped in Italy avalanche hotel

Three puppies were found safe and well after five days buried in the rubble of a collapsed hotel.

Emergency workers found the pups as they dug through the debris in hopes of finding the 23 people still missing after an earthquake caused an avalanche to bury the hotel in Farindola, Italy.

Fabio Jerman, a firefighter working with the rescue effort at Hotel Rigopiano, said the find gave the workers much-needed hope.

The three puppies were an “important sign of life, which gives us hope”, he said.

The three white sheepdogs were found in a boiler room – that room is far from where the missing people are thought to be.

The rescue effort has taken a different tack to try to find the 23 missing people, but conditions are risky because of the danger of further snowfalls.

The death toll from an avalanche in central Italy has climbed to 12, with 17 people still missing at the mountain resort which is buried by tonnes 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.

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.