PENNE -- Quintino Marcella, a friend of the ‘Rigopiano’ hotel tragedy survivor from whom he received a panicked call before the avalanche, testified Friday the delay of the emergency services to acknowledge his alarms.

 “I called 118, 112, 115… I drove the world mad,” said Quintino Marcella, a restaurant owner and friend of survivor Giampiero Parete, currently in hospital in Pescara where his wife and son were subsequently taken after the latest rescue mission successfully plucked them to safety -- rescuers are looking for their daughter who is currently still trapped under.

 Marcella said, in an online video that is being picked up by news sites, that he received a frantic Whatsapp call from his friend and cook at his restaurant Giampiero, staying at the Gran Sasso ski resort’s ‘Rigopiano’ hotel that was “swept away” by an avalanche triggered by the rash of earthquake tremors rocking central Italy. According to Marcella, he then gave the alarm shortly after receiving the call at around 5:30 p.m.

 “The lady replied to me in an odd way and said ‘look, I called the hotel two hours ago and everything was fine.’,” said the restaurant owner talking about the cold reply from the prefecture. When he explained that his friend was not joking and was seriously worried, according to Marcella, “she did not want to take my version seriously.”

 After calling 118, 112, 115, it was only at 8 p.m. that the rescue teams set out on their skis, on their long nocturnal journey, arriving at 4 a.m. at the hotel. “After that they believed me. They asked me questions. I was in touch with my friend through messages…,” said Marcella.

 “He carried on calling for help and saying that ‘the others are all dead,’ but I do not know if it is true. He said ‘I have lost everything.’ I pray to Jesus that they are found alive. Unfortunately, the rescue car left with two hours of delay,” he concluded.

 Two hours passed before someone actually responded -- a fatal delay. Just like the delay of the snow plough that should have arrived at 3 p.m., while all the guests of the hotel were grouped in the hall waiting to leave, but that was postponed until 7 p.m.

 However, during this delay, a huge avalanche transformed the 'Rigopiano' hotel on the windswept plateau in the Pescara province into a trap for 35 people, still missing Friday.

 With emergency services still working Friday to reach the six people known to be still alive, and the others feared dead, buried under 5 metres of snow, the public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into involuntary manslaughter due to the tardiness of the rescue services.

 nkd