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Italy earthquakes: 'many dead' after avalanche hits hotel Italy earthquakes: 'many dead' after avalanche hits hotel
(about 1 hour later)
A number of people were killed after an avalanche struck a hotel in central Italy after a series of earthquakes, according to reports. Up to 30 people are feared dead after an avalanche struck a hotel in a central Italian ski resort after a series of earthquakes.
Up to 30 people were believed to be in the building when the avalanche hit on Wednesday night. About 20-30 guests had been staying at the Rigopiano hotel in the town of Farindola, in the lower Gran Sasso mountain range, when the avalanche struck on Wednesday night.
SkyTG24 Television said several bodies were found inside the Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola town on the Gran Sasso mountain in the central Abruzzo region. “Many are dead,” Antonio Crocetta, head of a team of Alpine rescuers in the Abruzzo region, said. No further details were available.
The Italian news agency Ansa quoted the head of a rescue squad that reached the hotel as saying “there are many dead”. Rescuers managed to reach the hotel, located 1,200 metres above sea level, by ski amid treacherous weather conditions at about 4am.
No further details were immediately available. The civil protection agency said on Thursday it was trying to get rescue vehicles to the stricken hotel through roads covered in snow.
This is a breaking story. More details soon… Video footage shows rescuers digging through a wall of snow, and at least one man being led through the cleared path.
Two people, one suffering from hypothermia, had survived because they were outside of the building when the avalanche hit.
Giampaolo Parete, 38, had gone to collect something from his car, leaving his wife and children inside, the Ansa news agency cited him telling doctors.
The body of one victim has been removed from the building.
Central Italy was struck by four earthquakes on Wednesday, measuring between 5.1 and 5.7 magnitude.
A 82-year-old man died after the roof of a farm building in Castel Castagna, a town in the Abruzzo province of Teramo, collapsed on him.
A mother and her child were pulled from rubble in the same area, while the search for the 60-year-old man, buried under snow in nearby Campotosto, was called off on Wednesday night.
Three farmers are also reported to be missing.
The civil protection agency has warned of further avalanches, with its chief saying the situation remains critical.
“Bad weather and earthquakes in the same area have made it an extremely complicated situation,” Fabrizio Curcio said. “But a minute has not been lost and all the necessary rescue resources will continue to be put in place.”
The quakes struck close to Amatrice, one of the towns destroyed by an earthquake in August that left almost 300 people dead and thousands homeless.
The bell tower of the Sant’Agostino church, the last monument to survive last summer’s quake, collapsed after the first quake on Wednesday morning, according to local news reports.