Rescue crews digging through an Italian hotel buried in an avalanche say there could be additional survivors more than three days after tons of snow came barreling down a mountainside.

Rescuers told reporters in the central Apennine mountains on Sunday morning there are air pockets in some of the Hotel Rigopiano’s wreckage. But they haven’t been able to reach all those areas yet.

Nine survivors from the Wednesday evening avalanche were located in air pockets inside the crushed hotel on Friday. Rescue officials say there are other spaces where some of the 23 people still missing might be found alive.

Five bodies have been recovered from the hotel’s wreckage.

Rain is making the snow heavy and complicating the manual rescue operation. Officials say the risk of fresh avalanches is high.

(AP)