Avalance buries Hotel in Italy, many are feared dead

At least 30 people are suspected dead in Italy after an earthquake let loose an avalanche which hit a hotel on Wednesday night.

The road in the earthquake-prone central region of Italy — AFP/Getty Images

A number of people are believed to have been killed when an avalanche hit a mountain hotel in the earthquake-prone region of central Italy late Wednesday night.

Italian media reported that the avalanche covered the three-story Hotel Rigopiano in Abruzzo, east of Rome, where up to 30 people, including 20 guests and seven staff members, were believed to be missing on Thursday morning.

As a result of the avalanche, the hotel's roof partly collapsed, but a heavy snowstorm had blocked key routes to the site.

“There are many dead,” said Antonio Crocetta, the head of a group of Alpine police that struggled with snowy weather conditions before it could reach the isolated hotel at around 4:00 am local time on Thursday.

According to Italy's La Reppublica, two people have been saved from the building, which was shifted ten metres by the force of the avalanche. Up to 30 are feared dead.

(19gen-9:00) Drago54 sulla verticale #HotelRigopiano. Soccorso in atto pic.twitter.com/udCEEQlcPt

— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) January 19, 2017

A total of 83 small earthquakes have been recorded in the area since yesterday, with the strongest measuring between 3.5 and 3.6, according to the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

The location of the avalanche is approximately 100km south of Amatrice, location of a devastating earthquake in August, 2016, that killed 298 people.

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Posted by Slaustz, Published at January 19, 2017 and have 0 comments