According to the official list provided by rescue teams, 40 people were at the hotel, including 28 guests and 12 employees, when the avalanche dumped some 60,000 tons of snow and rocks on the resort.

Eleven people and three resident puppies survived the disaster.

Nine, including all four children at the four-star hotel, were pulled out alive from the rubble and snow by rescue teams.

The other two survivors, chef Giampiero Parete and hotel employee Fabio Salzetta, were outside the hotel when it was hit by the avalanche.

The disaster followed an unprecedented snowfall that isolated the resort and four powerful earthquakes which shook central Italy early last Wednesday.

With ANSA