Italy avalanche: many feared dead as Rigopiano hotel engulfed
Up to 30 people missing at hotel in Abruzzo ski resort as avalanche buries building after series of earthquakes
Up to 30 people are missing with many feared dead after an avalanche buried a ski resort hotel in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, which has been rattled by a series of earthquakes.
About 20 to 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.
“There are many dead,” said a member of the Alpine Rescue squad that battled through blizzard conditions on skis to reach the hotel at about 4am.
“We haven’t been able to do too much,” added Antonio Crocetta from the scene, about 1,200 metres above sea level. “The structure has collapsed. It’s more like a pile of rubble than a hotel.
“What is left of the hotel is in danger of collapse. The hotel is almost completely destroyed. We’ve called out but we’ve heard no replies, no voices. We’re digging and looking for people.”
Italy’s fire service said dogs were helping with the search but there was no sign yet that any of the 20 to 30 people, many of them children, staying at the hotel were alive.
A base camp for rescue workers was set up in the town of Penne, about 6 miles (10km) away, where ambulances waited for earth-moving vehicles to clear the winding, snow-clogged road leading to the hotel.
Video footage shot from inside the hotel showed piles of snow and rubble cascading down the stairway into the foyer. Rescuers were also filmed digging through a wall of snow, and leading at least one man away through the cleared path.
Two people, one suffering from hypothermia, survived because they were outside the building when the avalanche hit.
Giampaolo Parete, 38, told doctors he had gone to collect something from his car, leaving his wife and children inside, the Ansa news agency reported.
The bodies of three victims have been removed from the building.
Avalanche warnings were issued across the region, which is dominated by Gran Sasso, a majestic 2,912-metre (9,554ft) peak. The area has numerous small ski resorts popular with day-trippers from Rome and urban centres on Italy’s east coast.
On Wednesday central Italy was struck by four earthquakes, measuring between 5.1 and 5.7 magnitude.
An 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 a 60-year-old man, buried under snow in nearby Campotosto, was called off on Wednesday night.
