Up to 30 People Feared Dead as Avalanche Buries Italian Ski Hotel After 4 Earthquakes Hit the Region

Up to 30 people are feared dead after an Italian ski hotel was buried by an avalanche during a series of earthquakes.

Rescue teams using cross country skis trekked six miles through the night to reach the four-star Hotel Rigopiano, in the remote village of Farindola, in the central Abruzzo region, which has been hit by up to 15ft of snow in a matter of days.

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The search operation was launched after four powerful earthquakes hit central Italy yesterday – in regions already reeling from deadly quakes last August.

There are reports this morning that as many as 30 people – guests and staff- are missing after a 6ft wall of snow engulfed the three-storey hotel, shifting it up to 30ft.

Specialist mountain police have begun extracting bodies after battling to reach the hotel on skis or by helicopter.

‘There are many dead,’ Antonio Crocetta, the head of a group of Alpine police that was trying to reach the cut-off hotel, was quoted as saying.

Up to 30 people are have been killed after an Italian ski hotel was buried by an avalanche during a series of earthquakes

There are reports this morning that as many as 30 people - guests and staff- are missing after the avalanche crashed in to the three-storey hotel, shifting it up to 30ft — There are reports this morning that as many as 30 people – guests and staff- are missing after the avalanche crashed in to the three-storey hotel, shifting it up to 30ft

Rescue teams are still battling to access the hotel - a task made more difficult by huge snow drifts in the area — Rescue teams are still battling to access the hotel – a task made more difficult by huge snow drifts in the area

The hotel is located around 55 miles from the epicentre of the earthquakes yesterday

Mountain rescue teams reached the hotel by skis at around 4am local time, Sky TG24 reported.

Video footage showed rescuers with shovels digging through a wall of snow, and at least one man being led through the cleared path. An ambulance was blocked several miles from the hotel, according to Sky, while footage showed emergency services helicopters in the air near the scene.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain.

It said it could not immediately confirm any deaths out of respect for the families of the guests and staff.

Antonio Di Marco, president of the province of Pescara, which includes the mountain village of Farindola, said two people had been saved.

‘We don’t know yet how many people are unaccounted for or dead,’ he wrote on his Facebook page.

Pictures emerging from the scene show how rescuers are having to contend with mountains of snow

Rescue teams had to trek for six miles using cross country skis to reach Hotel Rigopiano, in the remote village of Farindola, in the Abruzzo region, which has been hit by heavy snowfall in the last week

Italy's Civil Protection Agency said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain — Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the hotel on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain

Twenty firemen, two mountain rescue teams, six ambulances and local police were heading for the site last night, but the weather conditions were expected to cause major delays, a civil protection agency spokesman said

An ambulance was blocked several miles from the hotel, according to Sky, while footage showed emergency services helicopters in the air near the scene

Several news websites quoted the president of the province as writing on social media that an avalanche had hit the Hotel Rigopiano, saying it was buried in snow (file photo)

‘What is certain is that the building took a direct hit from the avalanche, to the point that it was moved by 10 metres.’

Farindola mayor Ilario Lacchetta said on his Facebook page that ‘the dimensions of the avalanche were huge.

‘It took the whole hotel with it.’ he said.

The region was hit by four seismic shocks measuring above five magnitude in the space of four hours on Wednesday, with at least one person confirmed dead.

The hotel is located around 55 miles from the epicentre of the quakes.

Farindola mayor Ilario Lacchetta said on his Facebook page that 'the dimensions of the avalanche were huge — Farindola mayor Ilario Lacchetta said on his Facebook page that ‘the dimensions of the avalanche were huge

Rescuers have been facing tough conditions as they attempt to reach the scene of the avalanche

Video footage showed rescuers with shovels digging through a wall of snow, and at least one man being led through the cleared path

Tractors with snowploughs are being used in a desperate bid to clear roads in the area

Twenty firemen, two mountain rescue teams, six ambulances and local police were heading for the site last night, but the weather conditions were expected to cause major delays, a civil protection agency spokesman said.

Italy was hit by four earthquakes in four hours on Wednesday, killing one and bringing terror to snowbound mountain areas still recovering from last year’s series of deadly tremors.

The quakes, all measuring more than five magnitude, struck close to Amatrice, the mountain town devastated by an August earthquake that left nearly 300 people dead.

The body of one victim was found under the debris of a building in the town of Castel Castagna, in the province of Teramo, local authorities said in a statement.

And as night fell and temperatures plummeted, fears mounted for isolated residents of remote hamlets cut off by heavy snowfall, while more than 130,000 homes were without electricity.

A mother and child dragged from the ruins of a collapsed country cottage near Teramo in the Abruzzo region were both found to be suffering from hypothermia.

Italy's Civil Protection Agency said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the Hotel Rigopiano on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain when the first of four powerful quakes hit the region on Wednesday morning — Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said there had been around 30 guests and staff at the Hotel Rigopiano on the eastern lower slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain when the first of four powerful quakes hit the region on Wednesday morning

Antonio Di Marco, president of the province of Pescara, which includes the mountain village of Farindola where the hotel is located, said two people had been saved

The region was hit by four seismic shocks measuring above five magnitude in the space of four hours on Wednesday, with at least one person confirmed dead

Shortly before dusk, Nello Patrizi, a farmer in Montereale, south of Amatrice, was out with his dog, trying to check on cows knee-deep in snow.

‘It was an apocalyptic shock. We were petrified,’ the 63-year-old told AFP.

‘The first one was bad enough, the others seemed even stronger. You had the impression everything was collapsing, people were screaming.

‘With all the snow there was this morning, people could not get out of their houses. I thought ‘all we need now is an earthquake’ and here it is.’

Fabio di Gianfrancesco, 55, drove from Rome to another hamlet, Aringo, to check on elderly relatives.

‘They were trapped in the house because of the snow,’ he said. ‘We got them out and then helped the last 10 or so residents here to leave.’

Around 160 people were preparing to spend the night under the canvas of a giant tent on a local sports field.

Wednesday’s first shock struck at 10.25 am local time.

A hotel in central Italy was hit by an avalanche on Wednesday, and rescuers are trying to ascertain whether there are any victims, Italian media reported

Three people were believed missing after the avalanche hit the hotel in Pescara, a province in the Abruzzo region

Four strong earthquakes have shaken the same region of central Italy that suffered deadly tremors last year, and could have had an affect on the avalanche

As night fell and temperatures plummeted, fears mounted for isolated residents of remote hamlets cut off by heavy snowfall, while more than 130,000 homes were without electricity

Monitors put its strength at between 5.1 and 5.3 magnitude. A second, 50 minutes later, was measured between 5.4 and 5.7.

A third, minutes later, measured 5.3, while one of more than 100 major aftershocks was measured at 5.1 at 2.30 pm.

The tremors were felt powerfully across the Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche regions and clearly in Rome, over 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

Residents of Aquila, where over 300 people died in a 2009 earthquake, rushed into the snow-covered streets in panic but the city suffered little damage.

Avalanche warnings were issued across a region that has a number of ski resorts and a highest peak, Gran Sasso, at 2,912 metres (9,554 feet).

In Amatrice, the belltower of the 15th Century Church of Sant’Agostino collapsed. It had been damaged by the first of the earthquakes which struck the mountainous centre of the country between August and October last year.

Shell-shocked residents from the village of Montereale arrive to set up for the night in a large tent on a nearby sports ground

Road block: Thick snow covering earthquake hit areas of Colledara in Italy have been hampering rescue operations

Most of those who died in that quake were in the town, a beauty spot which was packed with holidaymakers at the height of the summer season.

Two further quakes rattled the region in October, with the most powerful measuring 6.5 magnitude.

Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi cursed his town’s bad luck.

‘I don’t know if we did something bad. That’s what I have been asking since yesterday. We have got up to two metres of snow and now another earthquake!’

Stefano Petrucci, mayor of nearby Accumoli, said roads were unpassable and bemoaned a shortage of clearance trucks. ‘We can’t fight a war with bows and arrows.’

The affected area is thinly populated and thousands of residents were evacuated last year pending reconstruction of their homes.

The last of the 2016 quakes, on October 30, was the most powerful since a 6.9 magnitude one struck near Naples in southern Italy in 1980, leaving 3,000 people dead.

Much of the country’s land mass and some of its surrounding waters are prone to seismic activity with the highest risk concentrated along its mountainous central spine.

Italy straddles the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, making it vulnerable when they move.

The worst disaster of the 20th century was in 1908 when an estimated 95,000 died in tidal waves following a quake in the sea between mainland Italy and Sicily.

SOURCE: Daily Mail, Julian Robinson