Alert – Italy: Up to 30 Missing as Avalanche Hits Hotel Rigopiano near Farindola (January 19, 2017)

January 19, 2017

Alert – Italy: Up to 30 Missing as Avalanche Hits Hotel Rigopiano near Farindola

An avalanche has hit a central Italy hotel – Rigopiano Hotel, a four-star spa hotel close to Gran Sasso Mountain in the Abruzzo region – partly collapsing its roof. Up to 30 people are missing and one has died. The region was struck by a series of earthquakes on Wednesday.

According to BBC:

Rescuers say up to 30 people are missing after a hotel in central Italy was hit by an avalanche, apparently triggered by an earthquake. Rescuers battled overnight to reach the Rigopiano hotel, with the first of them arriving on skis. Snow dislodged by the avalanche had blocked the roads in.

One person has been pulled dead from the snow. At least three came out alive but most others appear still buried. One official said there were “many dead” in the hotel.

The mountainous region of Central Italy was hit by a succession of four earthquakes on Wednesday and further tremors were reported overnight. The quakes have compounded problems resulting from recent storms, which have brought down power lines and cut off villages.

Rescue operations are under way in other parts of the region as well.

The roof on the four-star spa hotel, close to the Gran Sasso mountain in the Abruzzo region, partly collapsed on Wednesday night. Rescuers said at least 20 tourists and seven staff were inside at the time, among them children.

Italian media reported that some guests at the hotel had been able to send text messages after they were trapped. “Help, we’re dying of cold,” Ansa news agency quoted one couple as saying. Two people were found alive outside the damaged building, which was surrounded by fallen trees. They were taken to hospital, one suffering from hypothermia.

A snowstorm and blocked routes have made access to the hotel difficult. Vehicles struggled to get through the snow, and some rescuers eventually resorted to skis.

Italian media said the first rescuers only reached the hotel on skis at 04:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Thursday.

The civil protection agency said it was now trying to get rescue vehicles to the hotel. The first victim, a man, was pulled out at about 09:30, Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Speaking at midday GMT, Italian Red Cross spokesman Tomaso Della Longa told the BBC he had heard that “in the last few minutes one or two persons have been found alive”.

The situation was changing “minute by minute” and there was still hope of finding more survivors, he added.

Wednesday’s quakes came after the regions of Abruzzo, Marche and Lazio were hit by days of heavy snow. One person in the area died on Wednesday and another was reported missing.

The same region was hit by an earthquake on 24 August, when 298 people died. Another earthquake in October killed no-one, as most of the population centres had been evacuated.

Since then, the region has been hit by cold weather and snowstorms.