Flash-flood toll up to 10 but three missing found

(ANSA) - Cosenza, August 21 - The death toll from a flash flood that hit hikers in a mountain-river canyon in Calabria Monday rose to 10 Tuesday as one of those injured died in hospital, but three missing hikers were found alive.
    The victim died because of a chest trauma in Cosenza hospital, local sources said.
    He had been gravely injured in the flood that swept away a group of hikers in the Pollino National Park.
    A search is on for the three missing hikers, police sources said Tuesday.
    Carabinieri said three mountain rescue teams from Umbria, Campania and Basilicata were taking part in the search.
    An eight-year-old girl saved after the flash flood was found next to a dead body, rescuers said.
    The girl, Chiara, "was semi-conscious but in a clear state of shock," a doctor said.
    "Her parents were almost certainly among the victims," said the doctor, Pasquale Gagliardi, head of the regional copter rescue unit.
    Calabrian prosecutors on Tuesday opened a probe into the disaster.
    The probe, against person or persons unknown, posits the possible charges of culpable manslaughter, culpable bodily harm, flooding and negligence, judicial sources said.
    So far no autopsies have been ordered, said prosecutor Eugenio Facciolla.
    "The first thought," he said, "is to save as many people as possible and then identify the victims.
    "We will assess the case this afternoon".
    The bodies were said to bear the typical signs of being dragged down a river.
    Three young people from Puglia missing after the flood were found alive on Tuesday, local sources said.
    The trio, aged 21, 22 and 23, had been camped out to the north of the scene of the tragedy, sources said, in an area without cellphone coverage.
    A friend of theirs told police on Twitter they were OK.
    It is "99.9% certain" that there are no missing people now left after the flood, Environment Minister Sergio Costa said Tuesday.
    Speaking after a public order meeting at Civita, near the scene of the tragedy, he said "it is 99.9% certain that there are no more missing among the people involved in the flash flood of the Raganello River".
    Following is the unofficial list of the 10 victims: 1 Paola Romagnoli, born Bergamo, 1963, university researcher.
    2 Antonio de Rasis, 1986, Trebisacce (Cosenza) 3 Gianfranco Fumarola, 1975, Martina Franca (Taranto) 4 Maria Immacolata Marrazzo, 1975, Ercolano (Naples) 5 Carmela Tammaro, 1977, Naples 6 Antonio Santopaolo, 1974, Naples 7 Miriam Mezzolla, 1991, Taranto 8 Carlo Maurici, 1983, Rome 9 Valentina Venditti, 1984, Rome 10 Claudia Giampietro, 1987, Conversano (Bari).
    One of the 10 was a rescuer who worked at the Rigopiano hotel disaster in 2017, sources said Tuesday. Antonio De Rasis, 32, a civil protection volunteer, was among the guides leading hikers through Calabrian gorges when a rain-swollen river struck them.
    The Hotel Rigopiano in Abruzzo was hit by an avalanche in January 2017 that killed 29 people.
    De Rasis was among the rescuers who pulled out 11 people alive.
    President Sergio Mattarella said Tuesday "all our country feels great sadness for this new tragedy that caused so many deaths and injuries in the Pollino Park.
    "I voice the utmost solidarity with the victims' relatives and the injured and I thank the rescue persons who operated and are still operating, with their customary abnegation, in difficult conditions".
    Premier Giuseppe Conte voiced "concern and sadness".
    "I am continuing to follow with concern and sadness the developments in the tragedy of the #Pollino (National Park)", he tweeted.
    "It is unfortunately a matter of 10 dead, 11 injured and 23 people rescued unhurt.
    "Thank you to the tireless rescue machine.
    "The government is close to the families of the victims and to the injured". Calabria Governor Mario Oliverio called a regional day of mourning for Wednesday.
    Civil Protection department chief Angelo Borrelli said Tuesday a yellow weather alert had been in place when the hikers were hit by the river swell.
    "There was the yellow alert. And I remind everyone that there can also be deaths with a yellow alert," he said.
    He said the tragedy had been "in some ways foreseeable".
    Borrelli called for a national platform to work with regional agencies on weather alerts in the wake of the tragedy.
    Borrelli said he had spoken about it with Premier Conte.
    He said "it is one of the main points of my renewed position".
    A nine-year-old girl was placed in deep sedation after being critically injured in the flood.
    The girl was hit full on by the swell of the Raganello River in the Gole di Raganello area.
    She is being sedated in Rome's Policlinico Gemelli Hospital after being moved from a Calabrian hospital.
    The girl, who is being artificially ventilated, is suffering acute respiratory insufficiency due to inhaling muddy water, doctors said.
    She is in the Gemelli IC unit.